• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, July 20, 2012

A new Wall Street report suggests Netflix will lower its forecast of adding 7 million U.S. streaming-service customers in 2012 by as much as 10%. But that should not come as a surprise to investors who have already harbored doubts, according to author Oppenheimer, which projects a 6.6 million increase. Still, the report was positive on Netflix as it prepares to announce its second-quarter results next week.

Oppenheimer projects Netflix will report 24 million streaming customers in the U.S., which would be a 2.6% increase over last quarter. That would be above the 23.6 million Netflix had projected on the low end for the April-June quarter.
 
Oppenheimer’s bullishness on Netflix included projections that the service accounts for nearly 20% of TV viewing in subscriber homes. Comparing the $8 Netflix charge with about $75 for a cable subscription, Oppenheimer wrote that “this suggests a very strong value proposition for Netflix customers.”
 
Also, research firm ForeSee shows the Netflix brand may be recovering from hits taken last year as it looked to separate its DVD-mail service and rebrand it. The company scored an 81 on its consumer satisfaction in May, according to Oppenheimer -- up from the 79 nadir in late 2011.
 
In the second quarter, Oppenheimer projects customers on average streamed 34 hours of content a month -- up from 32 in the quarter before and 19 in the 2011 second quarter.
 
In the second quarter, a Netflix subscriber watched an average of 148 TV hours and 34 streaming hours on Netflix, with Netflix accounting for 19% of the combined figure.