Netflix Loses Subscribers for the First Time in 10 Years, Blames Account Sharing
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Netflix should improve the user experience first by simply implementing the points John Siracusa made in his blog post: An Unsolicited Streaming App Spec
dreinidaho
macrumors newbie
Exactly! That and finally killing off the ability for me to use my Facebook avatar as my Netflix profile picture have given me enough reason to cancel!
redfirebird08
macrumors 6502
Disney's market cap is $240 billion, but the bigger issue is Disney owns some of the most iconic movie content in the world. The Disney Plus app will always have a strong following. I'm surprised Apple has not already bought out Disney. That would provide a pretty awesome boost to Apple TV Plus.
cosmichobo
macrumors 65816
And another point...
My nephew lives between his mum and his grandfather.
His mum is paying for Netflix, which the nephew uses at both residents.
Is that against the rules? The user is the same person. In two locations.
What about when I was away for Easter, and signed in whilst at my parents house? Did my parents watch some content? Well no not really - they don't see the point in streaming. They're old. lol Are they still using the service - nope.
My nephew lives between his mum and his grandfather.
His mum is paying for Netflix, which the nephew uses at both residents.
Is that against the rules? The user is the same person. In two locations.
What about when I was away for Easter, and signed in whilst at my parents house? Did my parents watch some content? Well no not really - they don't see the point in streaming. They're old. lol Are they still using the service - nope.
Same exact thought. I almost cancelled, but am waiting for Stranger Things. Then I probably will.
Ken Linger
macrumors regular
Netflix doesn't want to mention the stuff that's a lot harder to fix. This doesn't sell confidence amongst shareholders.
Prices are going up everywhere. Food, gas, rent... people are cutting those services they don't need or don't find value in. For many, that's Netflix.
Competition is up. They're not just competing against Hulu anymore but numerous services. And those services have exclusivity to their most popular content for obvious reasons. Want Star Wars or Marvell? That's all Disney+ now. Want Star Trek or its one-new-show-per-month spinoffs? That's Paramount+. New and nearly-new releases? HBO's your choice now.
Lack of content. Many people here have already stated they've found content quality sliding down over the years. Justifying it by adding more content just reminds me of the joke "How was the buffet?" "Terrible... but wow, what portions!"
Misleading pricing. Offer "SD-quality" simply lets Netflix advertise "prices starting at just $10/month." Its actually a challenge today to find a new TV larger than 43" that ISN'T 4K (and at or below 43", 4K really doesn't make a difference). Standard IS 4K. Something like 8K would be "leading edge" and worth a service charge to the few people that can support it. Everything else is like airlines lowering their coach quality to make "Coach Plus" sound so much more appealing.
No, it's much easier to say "It's the account sharing." This is something that can easily be fixed in the next quarter or two. Check the IP and if it changes, freeze it at the new IP for x days/weeks/months. Sure, that will be inconvenient for those who travel with a FireTV Stick to use in hotels legitimately, but hey, we can then sell a $5 one-time "unlock" fee. We all know that, prior to 2021, no one ever shared a Netflix password so this is a brand new issue that never affected our numbers until now.
It is so much easier to penalize the loyal fan base with new restrictions and increased costs than to fix the problem.
Prices are going up everywhere. Food, gas, rent... people are cutting those services they don't need or don't find value in. For many, that's Netflix.
Competition is up. They're not just competing against Hulu anymore but numerous services. And those services have exclusivity to their most popular content for obvious reasons. Want Star Wars or Marvell? That's all Disney+ now. Want Star Trek or its one-new-show-per-month spinoffs? That's Paramount+. New and nearly-new releases? HBO's your choice now.
Lack of content. Many people here have already stated they've found content quality sliding down over the years. Justifying it by adding more content just reminds me of the joke "How was the buffet?" "Terrible... but wow, what portions!"
Misleading pricing. Offer "SD-quality" simply lets Netflix advertise "prices starting at just $10/month." Its actually a challenge today to find a new TV larger than 43" that ISN'T 4K (and at or below 43", 4K really doesn't make a difference). Standard IS 4K. Something like 8K would be "leading edge" and worth a service charge to the few people that can support it. Everything else is like airlines lowering their coach quality to make "Coach Plus" sound so much more appealing.
No, it's much easier to say "It's the account sharing." This is something that can easily be fixed in the next quarter or two. Check the IP and if it changes, freeze it at the new IP for x days/weeks/months. Sure, that will be inconvenient for those who travel with a FireTV Stick to use in hotels legitimately, but hey, we can then sell a $5 one-time "unlock" fee. We all know that, prior to 2021, no one ever shared a Netflix password so this is a brand new issue that never affected our numbers until now.
It is so much easier to penalize the loyal fan base with new restrictions and increased costs than to fix the problem.
There's too much competition for your eyeballs, it doesn't make any sense for a viewer to be loyal to a particular service.
Whenever I (re)subscribe to one of these services, I immediately go into the settings and cancel it, so it doesn't auto-renew. When I notice that the service has expired, I think, do I want to continue watching e.g. Netflix, or would I rather swap it out for HBO / Disney+ / Apple+, Paramount+, etc. for the next month?
It's rare that I would continue the same two months in a row. It's not even about saving money. It keeps things fresh, fixes the "open 6 different apps to find something interesting, spend all your time browsing the catalog" problem, allows you to check out services that you normally wouldn't (I've found some great shows on Apple+ and Paramount+ that I would probably otherwise never have checked out), and when you do return to a service a few months later there's lots of new content again.
Whenever I (re)subscribe to one of these services, I immediately go into the settings and cancel it, so it doesn't auto-renew. When I notice that the service has expired, I think, do I want to continue watching e.g. Netflix, or would I rather swap it out for HBO / Disney+ / Apple+, Paramount+, etc. for the next month?
It's rare that I would continue the same two months in a row. It's not even about saving money. It keeps things fresh, fixes the "open 6 different apps to find something interesting, spend all your time browsing the catalog" problem, allows you to check out services that you normally wouldn't (I've found some great shows on Apple+ and Paramount+ that I would probably otherwise never have checked out), and when you do return to a service a few months later there's lots of new content again.
Add us to the cancel list. $20 a month was the tipping point. Already not happy with their charging for resolution and clamping down on the 5 streams I’m paying for.
Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in more than a decade in Q1 2022, according to subscriber numbers the company said during today's earnings results. Netflix is down more than 200,000 subscribers, and the losses are set to continue.
Netflix was expecting to add 2.5 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, but did not hit that target. The suspension of its business in Russia cost it 700,000 subscribers, and without that loss, Netflix would have added 500,000 paid global users, which is still well below its projections.
In the United States and Canada, Netflix lost 600,000 customers, due to recent pricing changes. Netflix said this subscriber loss was anticipated and in line with expectations.
In a letter to shareholders [PDF], Netflix said that revenue growth has "slowed considerably," with the company faulting "a large number of households sharing accounts" and "competition" as reasons for the drop off. Netflix estimates that its 222 million paying households are sharing with an additional 100 million households that are not being monetized.
Going forward, Netflix said that it plans to implement "more effective monetization of multi-household sharing," which suggests that Netflix will soon enact measures to prevent account sharing. Netflix in March began testing an extra payment for those who share their Netflix accounts with people outside their households.
In Netflix's current test markets of Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, customers can pay an extra fee to share their accounts with two people outside of their household. When the test was launched, Netflix said that it was working to "understand the utility of these two features" before making changes in other countries.
Netflix has always included wording in its terms and services that prevents account usage across multiple households, but until now, the service has ignored password sharing. Netflix also recently enacted new price hikes, and a 4K streaming plan is priced at $20 per month.
It's worth noting that Netflix is the only streaming service that charges by streaming quality. In the U.S., Netflix charges $9.99 for the Basic no-HD plan that allows for streaming on a single device, $15.49 for a Standard HD plan that allows for two people to watch at the same time, and $19.99 for a Premium plan with Ultra HD streaming and support for four simultaneous viewers.
In the second quarter of 2022, Netflix is anticipating losing two million paid subscribers. To mitigate the continued losses, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said that in addition to addressing password sharing, the company is considering a more affordable, ad-supported plan within a year or two.
Article Link: Netflix Loses Subscribers for the First Time in 10 Years, Blames Account Sharing
We’re out. So many other less expensive options.
Jokes on them, the main reason I keep Netflix is because I am assuming that my family members are still watching it. If they block account sharing then I will reconsider.
Netflix is ok, it’s has the luck of being the first.
In my family we each get a service and share it with the other. But is Netflix blocks that we will be reconsidering which services we use.
Netflix is ok, it’s has the luck of being the first.
In my family we each get a service and share it with the other. But is Netflix blocks that we will be reconsidering which services we use.
Not buying this…if they are blaming most of the issues in households sharing accounts, that’s fine, but why now? Households sharing accounts has been a long term thing, so why is it suddenly having an impact this quarter vs. last, vs. last year, vs. 3 years ago?
The Russia thing certainly makes sense for that number of subscribers.
Other than that, I’d say the price increases every few months, combined with the fact people are coming out of their houses more than ever since the start of the pandemic is mostly responsible. A $1 or $2 increase in price every few years seems reasonable…and even makes sense…every few months and it gets tired real quick. And real expensive, real fast.
I have my ‘base’ tier paid by T-Mobile, where I pay the balance to the next plan up (standard?), but that covers less than it used to - used to add $0 to my cell phone bill, now I feel like I’m paying not that much less than the base price before these more than once a year increases. Starting to wonder whether even this makes sense to pay anymore, and we just need to drop the whole thing.
The Russia thing certainly makes sense for that number of subscribers.
Other than that, I’d say the price increases every few months, combined with the fact people are coming out of their houses more than ever since the start of the pandemic is mostly responsible. A $1 or $2 increase in price every few years seems reasonable…and even makes sense…every few months and it gets tired real quick. And real expensive, real fast.
I have my ‘base’ tier paid by T-Mobile, where I pay the balance to the next plan up (standard?), but that covers less than it used to - used to add $0 to my cell phone bill, now I feel like I’m paying not that much less than the base price before these more than once a year increases. Starting to wonder whether even this makes sense to pay anymore, and we just need to drop the whole thing.
return2sendai
Suspended
Here come the ads.
maxfromdenmark
macrumors 6502a
Well, the never ending price rising will pay the price. Is it only me or Netflix has the most expensive monthly payment among the all major streaming services?
red elma
macrumors regular
Not at all! Don't know what their streaming codec is but upgrading to 4K Nertflix has not improved anything.
I agree. I subscribe once every six months now because everything on Netflix is the same. By the time six months is up there is a little fresh content to last me about a month.
Alpha Centauri
macrumors 68000
Well, there's competition...at a much lower price. I'm currently trying Disney+ (half the Netflix Premium price), the AppleTV App my TV unfortunately doesn't support, HBO Max not available in my country. Netflix at onset did have some great shows, only to can them after one season.
Netflix has been around a while and new content is slow but their steep price increases border on arrogant corporate greed. Dolby Vision they do quite well and that's been the greatest disappointment with Disney+. I don't buy the sudden financial loss due to account sharing, that was around since the beginning, perhaps increased exponentially due to their now high pricing.
Netflix has been around a while and new content is slow but their steep price increases border on arrogant corporate greed. Dolby Vision they do quite well and that's been the greatest disappointment with Disney+. I don't buy the sudden financial loss due to account sharing, that was around since the beginning, perhaps increased exponentially due to their now high pricing.
szw-mapple fan
macrumors 68040
I suspect many people are only barely hanging onto their subscription because of account sharing, since friends/family using the account might want to watch content at different times. I’m pretty sure I would probably only bother with it for a couple of months per year if it was an individual account.
BC2009
macrumors 68020
Exactly.... Movie studios like Disney, Warner, Paramount and Universal withholding their content for their own streaming services is the real cause for their slow in subscriber growth. The competition is eating them alive.... Disney and Warner especially. A person can subscribe to Disney+, Paramount+ and Apple TV+ for the price of Netflix's premium plan with 4 screens. I could literally subscribe to Netflix 4 months per year and watch 100% of the content I like in those 4 months.
Account sharing has been going on since day 1 and with Netflix sharing accounts is a pain since you only get 2 screens on the standard plan and 4 on the premium plan. With Disney+ I get 7 profiles and 7 screens and 4K content if I want it for half the price of the Netflix standard 2-screen plan. And the Disney original series are better. I literally proposed cancelling Netflix to my family last month but my wife is watching a series on there right now. We just dropped Hulu and rotated in Amazon Prime for a while since we ran out of Hulu content (something I tried 3 months ago but my daughter was watching an anime on Hulu at the time). I wouldn't be surprised if in 3 months we drop Netflix because we are using other services.