Netflix, which reduced its U.S. subscriber estimates by 1 million for the current quarter after a dramatic change in pricing, will "get better" at being able to "precisely forecast and predict the behavior of that many people," chief content officer Ted Sarandos said at a conference Thursday.
Sarandos, speaking Thursday at the Paley Center's International Council 2011 conference in Los Angeles, had no additional comment on the updated subscriber forecast.
Earlier Thursday, Netflix reduced its previous U.S. subscriber estimates by 1 million for the third quarter of 2011, which ends Sept. 30 -- meaning it expects to lose around 600,000 customers in the States. That's largely the result of a Netflix's elimination of bundled DVD-plus-streaming plans, separating streaming-only service and DVD-by-mail services, amounting to a 60% price hike for some subscribers. The price change went into effect Sept. 1.
Sarandos said that when Netflix first launched the streaming product four years ago, "what we launched with was not worth paying for most people," so the company offered it as part of the flagship DVD-by-mail plans.
