Netflix Lost Almost 1 Million Subscribers Last Quarter
Well it’s never good news when a subscription-based company loses almost one million customers in the span of three months. But when you expected to lose two million customers over that stretch of time, there’s at least a silver lining in the whole thing.
That’s where Netflix finds itself today. Announcing its second quarter financial results, it revealed it had lost 970,000 subscribers in the period. But Netflix previously stated they expected to lose 2,000,000 subscribers in the second quarter of 2022, which means they beat their forecast by more than 1,000,000 subscribers. According to NBC, Netflix’s stock was up around 8 percent in after-hours trading.
In the first quarter of 2022, Netflix lost about 200,000 subscribers, their first net lost of users in a quarter in over a decade amidst increasing competition from newer streaming services like Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+.
Netflix was surely boosted in the quarter by the long-awaited return of one of the company’s most popular shows: Stranger Things. Its fourth season premiered in May after a nearly three year break between new episodes. And Netflix also broke up the season in two parts, with the second debuting on July 1, which likely helped keep people who signed up just to watch Stranger Things around for an extra couple of months.
Netflix has said it plans to boost its revenue in the future by adding its first commercials, offering customers the chance to subscribe for a lower monthly price if they’re willing to watch their shows and movies with ad-breaks. They’ve also announced plans to crack down on password sharing, which is rife among subscribers and their children and ex-boyfriends and co-workers.