The number of international subscribers grows steadily for Netflix as U.S. growth begins to stall.

In their recent third quarter, Netflix posted below-average domestic results — showing only 980,000 new U.S. subscribers, compared to just over two million new international subs. Netflix originally attributed this to their U.S. price-hike in May.

“As best we can tell, the primary cause is the slightly higher prices we now have compared to a year ago,” they wrote in their third quarter statement.

The last time Netflix tried to raise their price it led to a large consumer-revolt and many cancelled subscriptions.

However, May’s hike of $1 per month was different in that it was announced well in advance, and applied only to new customers. Their third quarter report showed uninspiring domestic growth — which they attributed to the U.S. hike. However, their fourth quarter statement says they now believe that the lack of growth was due to a “natural progression” in the U.S. market.

It seems the slowing was not related to the price-hike after all. In fact, Michael Mulvey, a business professor at the University of Ottawa, says their decision to avoid a price-hike on their original supporters showed respect and likely proved positive for their overall brand.

“If you show good faith to your customers, they’ll reciprocate.. and that good-will will cash in at a later date when they’re deciding if they should cancel or switch,” he said.

The number of U.S. subscribers grew by 14 per cent this year, as opposed to a 25 per cent growth in 2013 and a 26 per cent growth in 2012.

Though overall positive, their fourth quarter results still revealed a stall in the U.S., proving that the sluggish growth from the past few quarters might be a trend.

There’s only so much room to grow, said Mulvey, referring to the American market.

In their most recent statement, Netflix promised shareholders they’d keep U.S. contribution margins growing, despite slowing subscriber growth.

On the other hand, there has been a reassuring boost in international subscribers, which increased by 71 per cent this year.

One market they’re increasingly excited about, according to David Wells, Netflix CFO, is their Latin American market. In a publicly broadcast interview for their shareholders, Wells said the market reached five million subscribers last quarter.

“We continue to see great growth and great potential in the market. It’s a market with about 65 million broadband households. If you take that five million number that we talked about, and 65 million in terms of addressable, we think we’ve got a lot of room for growth in the market,” he said.

The obvious move now — if domestic growth appears to be stalling — is to continue to focus more energy on global expansion.

According to their recent statement, Netflix plans to do just that.

Australia and New Zealand will welcome Netflix in the latter part of the first quarter, and so  will additional “major countries” later this year.

“…We now believe we can complete our global expansion over the next two years, while staying profitable, which is earlier than we expected,” the statement reads.

However, Mulvey says they may face challenges along the way.

“When it comes to creative works… there’s not one set of international law that governs that, so they have to negotiate rights within each of those geographical areas,” he said. “There’s a lot that happens behind the scenes… there’s a lot of lawyers working to see how they can make this happen.”

According to their fourth-quarter statement, original content — that debuts exclusively on Netflix — topped their list of watched-content globally.

In order to continue their positive growth, they plan on releasing 320 hours of original programming this year.