Netflix loses viewers

Global streaming giant Netflix Inc has reported losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade and predicted more contraction in the second quarter.

Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter, falling well short of its modest predictions that it would add 2.5 million subscribers.

Its decision in early March to suspend service in Russia after it invaded Ukraine resulted in the loss of 700,000 members.

Netflix, which has 221.6 million subscribers, last reported a loss in customers in October 2011.

Netflix offered a gloomy prediction for the spring quarter, forecasting it would lose 2million subscribers, despite the return of such hotly anticipated series as Stranger Things and Ozark and the debut of the film The Grey Man, starring Chris Evans and Ryan Gosling.