Netflix Streamed a Record-Setting 1 Billion Hours of Content in June

Netflix has certainly had its share of PR blunders recently, but things seem to be back on track. On Tuesday, CEO Reed Hastings posted on Facebook that Netflix streamed out a billion hours of video content in June — setting a new monthly record for the company.

“Congrats to [Chief Content Officer] Ted Sarandos, and his amazing content licensing team,” Hastings wrote. “When ‘House of Cards‘ and ‘Arrested Development‘ debut, we’ll blow these records away. Keep going, Ted, we need even more!”

Hastings is, of course, talking about the original programming Netflix has locked up. Back in May, Sarandos predicted the Kevin Spacey vehicle ‘House of Cards’ and new seasons of cult-favorite ‘Arrested Development’ would reinvigorate the company and grow its profitable streaming arm.

In addition, he said such homegrown content would make Netflix less dependent on expensive licensing deals with the major studios and cable companies, adding, “I was becoming increasingly concerned that the people who were selling to us wouldn’t want to sell to us for long … People keep saying, ‘Oh, you’re going to become like HBO?’ [and] I say, ‘No, no, no. HBO is going to become like Netflix.’”

The June numbers are certainly a bit of welcome good news for a company that last year infuriated customers with a controversial pay hike to its most popular subscription service and then had a pretty embarrassing stumble when it tried to spin off its DVD-by-mail service into a the short-lived Qwikster.

After Hastings’ announcement on Tuesday, Netflix’s stock saw a bump of about 6 percent, closing at $72.04. An improvement, yes, but still a far cry from the $300 its shares once had in the halcyon days before things fell apart.