Netflix sees record revenue, but lowest quarterly growth since 2009

Netflix has just released its quarterly financial information, ahead of a 3pm Pacific earnings call. Via its Investor Relations page, we can take a look at the latest PDF of what it has sent to shareholders. While the money looks pretty good, there’s some deeper things that might be a bit troubling.

Boasting a subscriber gain in the US of 1.8 million in the quarter looks promising. However, the story that’s not told here is the fact that it’s only a 75% growth over the same quarter in 2010. A number that low hasn’t been seen since Q4 of 2009, when Netflix had 61% subscriber additions.

On the whole, though, Netflix has set a record for subscriptions added globally, raising 1% to a number of 70% over 69% in Q1 of 2011. All of this amounts to a record global revenue of $789 million with an increase of $1.26 in earnings per share over the previous quarter.

The statement shows that nearly 75% of all new signups were opting for the streaming-only plan and it is believed that the company’s shipments of DVD’s has now peaked. Hybrid plans will still continue to go strong, according to predictions, with the company estimating that as many as 12 million customers will have both streaming and DVD plans.

There’s a bit of talk, as well, about upcoming Facebook integration but only for Canadian and Latin American subscribers. The Video Privacy Protection Act appears to be standing in the way of the Facebook service launching in the United States.

We’ll dig in and see if there’s anything else that’s interesting in the report. However, at first glance, the only thing surprising is the sharp dropoff to Netflix’s growth.