Now that it has a largely captive audience, Netflix may be one of the few companies more likely to benefit from the coronavirus pandemic than to be crushed by it. Investors will get a clearer picture on how Netflix has fared so far on April 21 when the company releases its latest subscriber numbers. Netflix has predicted a gain of 7 million subscribers during the first quarter, but it released that projection on Jan. 21, when it was still business as usual across much of the world. The company will also release a new forecast for the second quarter, typically its slowest time of the year. Any
sign of an uptick will be good news for the streaming service, which faces increasing competition from Disney, AT&T’s TimeWarner and others. Disney signaled how desperate people are for entertainment recently when it disclosed its five-month-old streaming service has already surpassed 50 million subscribers. If Netflix hits its target, its service will have 174 million subscribers. Rising expectations have pushed up Netflix shares about 7% since the benchmark S&P 500 index hit its peak on Feb. 19. Despite a recent rally, the S&P 500 is still down by 16% du
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