Netflix needs to be careful with its free riders

As Netflix tries to shift gears to investors, it might need to do something about those who get a free ride.

When the streaming pioneer reports its first-quarter results on Tuesday, the numbers could show one of its weakest periods in years in terms of paid subscriber growth. Netflix forecast 2.5 million net adds for the quarter when it last reported results in late January, but that was before the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which has prompted Netflix and many other companies to halt operations in Russia. Cowen’s John Blackledge now expects Netflix to add only about 1.5 million new subscribers in the quarter.