Netflix Adds Customers to Streaming, Loses $5 Million This Quarter

Netflix increased its subscriber base for online streaming, gaining roughly 1.7 million customers in the United States when it posted its 1st quarter results for 2012, bringing its worldwide total of subscribers to 26.5 million.

CEO Reed Hastings sees the streaming option as very important to pay TV networks. In fact, he claims Netflix deserves a lot of credit for the popularity HBO's Mad Men, citing high ratings on HBO after all of the past seasons were made available on the service.

It has been an up and down quarter for Netflix as consumers fluctuate on what they want from the company. Overall, the interplay resulted in a loss of $5 million, which is no laughing matter. In fact, it is the first time in seven years that Netflix has reported a loss during any quarter of the year.

More bad news for the streaming TV giant, the company also lost 1.1 million users of its DVD service.

Regardless, Hastings and CFO David Wells both have confidence in their company, including its "stragetic expansion" into original programming. Lilyhammer, the first such series, was recently renewed for a second season with other new programs slated to begin.