According to Digital TV Research, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) will have 128 million subscribers by 2022, up by 44% from 89 million at end-2016. The research house estimates that the number of international subscribers to the OTT video provider will exceed U.S. ones by early 2018.
Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research, said: "This impressive growth comes despite Netflix not having direct access to subscribers in the world's largest country: China. Furthermore, Digital TV Research believes that Netflix will fall foul of Russian legislation. Due to be introduced in July 2017, this restricts foreign companies to only 20% of digital platforms' equity."
North America and Western Europe are expected to supply 72% of Netflix's total subscriber base by 2022, down from 81% in 2016. The Asia Pacific region is expected to reach more than 10 million subscribers by 2022, nearly triple the 2016 total.
Netflix expanded to 130 more countries in January 2016 to bring its total to 190 countries. The 130 new countries are expected to have 14 million subscribers combined by 2022, up from 3 million at end-2016. The 2022 figure corresponds to 11% of Netflix's global total.
The top five countries are expected to supply two-thirds of Netflix's subscribers by 2022. The United States is expected to comprise 44% of subscribers by 2022. By 2022, 17 countries are expected to have more than 1 million subs, up from 10 countries at end-2016.
