Netflix Inc. service in Russia has been suspended since March, which may complicate the company's efforts to reinvigorate subscriber growth around the world.
Estimates are somewhat mixed regarding Netflix's exposure to Russia, but the decline in Russian members and the inability to add new members in the country could hurt the company's ability to deliver the kind of growth numbers it saw in the past, analysts say. The company is set to report its first-quarter earnings results after market close April 19.
Netflix in January reported a membership miss for the fourth quarter of 2021 and issued guidance of a first-quarter 2022 membership gain of just 2.5 million, which would represent a year-over-year drop of about 36%. The muted forecast, and the fact that the Wall Street consensus puts first-quarter memberships in line with that guidance, could signal a shift in Netflix's scale of growth off the massive numbers posted through the pandemic, said Kagan analyst Seth Shafer.
Visit S&P Global to read this article.
