Netflix takes aim at users sharing their accounts with others as subscriber figures fall by 200,000.
The world has passed peak Netflix – for now – as the lockdown streaming boom evaporates. After slow growth at the end of 2021, Netflix is now seeing subscriber numbers fall.
After losing 200,000 subscribers in the three months up to the end of March, it has told investors it expects the drop to get worse. Its latest earnings figures reveal the company expects subscriber figures to fall by two million this quarter.
That’s despite recent sucesses with Bridgerton and The Adam Project.
Blame game
Netflix cited four reasons why it thinks growth is stalling and why it is losing subscribers.
Account sharing
It says that in addition to the 221.64 million households that subscribe to Netflix, an additional 100 million households globally are not paying for the service.
These “additional households” or freeloaders face a crackdown by Netflix.
It’s already piloting measures to stop account sharing in South America. The pilot will help determine how to deal with freeloaders elsewhere in the world.
Increased competition
Netflix also told investors increased competition is taking its toll. The company pointed to traditional broadcasters launching new streaming services in the past three years.
Economic and geopolitical factors
Additionally, Netflix blamed “macro factors”. This includes “sluggish economic growth, increasing inflation, geopolitical events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” The company also said “continued disruption from Covid” is likely to be “having an impact as well”. That’s despite Netflix having benefitted greatly from Covid lockdowns.
On inflationary matters, Netflix recently introduced above inflation price rises in a number of countries, including the UK and Ireland.
Everyone else…
And Netflix also blamed everyone from internet providers to TV manufacturers and households not upgrading their TVs.
Netflix commented: “it’s increasingly clear that the pace of growth into our underlying addressable market (broadband homes) is partly dependent on factors we don’t directly control, like the uptake of connected TVs (since the majority of our viewing is on TVs), the adoption of on-demand entertainment, and data costs.”
Glimmer of hope?
Yesterday, market research company Kantar Worldpanel said the number of households subscribing to at least one streamer had fallen in the UK.
However, the research also indicated that when it came to choosing which service to ditch, Netflix was one of the last to be cancelled by households.
By Iain Hatton, Features Writer, RXTV