Netflix Lost 1.3 Million U.S. and Canadian Subscribers in Q2 2022

[raindogg]

Stop crying Netflix. You finally have competition and you're over priced. Instead of raising your prices you should try competing.

 

[webkit]

Reading through some of the negative comments about Netflix here, it's amazing they still have over 73 million paying subscribers in North America right now. You'd think practically no one subscribers anymore yet their numbers are still more than twice what Hulu, Apple TV+, Paramount+, etc. each have in North America.

It will be interesting to see how their ad-supported plan does to boost subscriber numbers.

 

[EdT]

A lot of the shows that I liked on Netflix aren’t on Netflix anymore, they are on other streaming services. And the shows that Netflix replaces them with get canceled so quickly that I won’t start watching a new Netflix series until there is at least one full season and they haven’t already announced that it has been canceled. And even that is iffy with Netflix canceling shows that are just starting to gain an audience, which can take 1 1/2 to 2 full seasons.

 

[Basic75]

Netflix tried going for quantity over quality, hoping the law of averages would help them out (it didn’t); they favored short-term hype and catering to the zeitgeist rather than having the patience to let shows breathe and find their audience, and after repeatedly failing to improve their product amid increased competition, they regularly jacked-up their price without justification. Netflix is a textbook case of corporate hubris. This is a company that was rolling in capitol and continued to throw the same sh*t at the wall hoping it would stick despite warnings left, right, and center that it needed to step up.

Agree, but there's the other half of the equation that is Disney etc. starting their own streaming services because of Netflix's success and moving all of their content over. I don't see how Netflix management can be blamed for this, with hindsight it's easy to say this was bound to happen, but...

 

[svish]

Maybe the ad supported plan can bring some customers back. But Netflix should also consider lowering prices for its other plans.

 

[NMBob]

Great. They'll probably go out of business just before the last season of Stranger Things...

 

[Sam Squanch]

Netflix execs: We'll improve through more monetisation schemes. If that doesn't work then we are at a loss as to why people are leaving.

The people: Tired of garbage shows. Tired of monetisation schemes and constant price hikes. Literally make good shows and streamline your plans into more traditional single and family plans.

 

[EdT]

Netflix didn't blame password sharing when they were experiencing exponential growth. We all know why they are losing subscribers, but they themselves can't recognise it.
It will be their downfall in the end if they're not careful.

I don’t know at what level of management that the reality filters kick in but at that level and below the lower management is pretty much aware of why they are losing viewers. For some reason, in many businesses, once you get high enough in management then problems are universally centered on lazy employee’s, dishonest customers, and clueless suppliers and never on the policies and decisions that upper management makes.

 

[smaffei]

Turns out, in that same quarter, HBOMax's subscription numbers increased by 1.2 million and AppleTV+'s went up by .1 million. Weird. 😜

Blaming your paying user base for performance metrics, while increasing revenue, is A) about as amateur as I have seen and B) not an effective strategy - if longevity is the goal. Even if they believed that to be true, had metrics showing just that, from PR pop, you don't make that belief public.

I've been a Netflix streamer since they launched. Over the years, I've grown weary of their increasingly bloated library of largely unwatchable content, price hikes and overall d-baggery. As many have stated here, I too am (and have been) considering leaving. This might be the thing that pushes me to finally implement a new streaming strategy I've been mulling.

Because HBO Max actually has shows people want to watch! "Peacemaker" was brilliant and I can't wait for "Harley Quinn" season 3!

 

[smaffei]

I don’t know at what level of management that the reality filters kick in but at that level and below the lower management is pretty much aware of why they are losing viewers. For some reason, in many businesses, once you get high enough in management then problems are universally centered on lazy employee’s, dishonest customers, and clueless suppliers and never on the policies and decisions that upper management makes.

I've witnessed this myself. The truth only seems to bubble up so high and then gets suppressed by the upper management reality distortion field.

 

[compwiz1202]

At some point many of the popular streaming services will catch on and start making people sign contracts that lock you in. Just wait and see–it'll happen.

And my money will be gone once they start making longer terms no longer optional

 

[compwiz1202]

Hardly, blockbuster was a physical media rental store business. Streaming killed them.

I think the mean NF is going down. I agree BB was one of the greatest places ever. Used to be nice to actually go into places to browse stuff and have some socialization. Just like arcades.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

sorry man , Netflix (blockbuster in 2006)is still one of the better services out there, they are not going to crash and burn like it sounds you want them to.

 

[wirefire]

So lets looks at the "BIG" streamers in 2022 (and moving forward.) Netflix is still the king but has a problem, their content was initially sourced from other IP holders, over time they have produced their own content but have challenges in that arena. (we will deal with that later). Disney, well they are a monster and have all of
ABC / Hulu / ESPN / Disney / Marvel / Star Wars / Fox at their disposal. so their back content library is massive, probably the largest of all the streamers. Also they have been a studio for ages so new content here is not a "new thing". They will be fine (I remember the paid Disney channel.... this is still better.). NBC.. not as big of a player as Disney but has the power of Comcast and Universal at its disposal. Again established content and a studio, and live TV channel. Paramount / CBS... Same as NBC but they have been in the game a little longer. And for everyone that loves their reality TV... Paramount is the winner here. Amazon. basically in my world amazon streaming is free. I would pay for prime without it... so. yeah anything I get here is a bonus, plus with the acquisition of MGM and the (extreme hope) of the resurrection of the Stargate franchise.... They will be fine. Apple..... this one I am in limbo over... I really like for all mankind, and it is a bundle service but it is very different than the others. Apple's ecosystem is Apple's own thing.... take it for what it is worth. I think their steaming will do well but only because Apple customers do apple things and in general Apple is all in on entertainment because services are the money play in the 21st century.

So with that all in place. Netflix position in 2022 is precarious, but not necessarily bad. First of all they lost their "one stop shop" for streaming... that will never return so that is a hit to the brand. They had more difficulties dealing with production during the pandemic than other studios. (Stranger things season 3 and 4 I am looking at you....). Foreign Netflix content reduced in English and farmed off as new content to the US.... this one is kind of annoying. What does Netflix create that people want(ed). Stranger things, Cobra Kai are the 2 most popular shows nostalgia factor... get the hint Netflix. Bidgerton - pseudo victorian fantasy but it is basically a gossip show. these are popular. ETC. but it cant take Netflix 2 years to turn around a new season of self produced shows. TV used to be on a hard 1 year cycle. streaming does allow some flexibility. but it cant take 2 years, the interest is lost unless it is a SUPER HIT show. and you cant cancel things people like, that is a major turn off.

Netflix, you don't have the value to stop subscription cycling in your current form. there needs to be a constant supply of new content that is popular (which requires 12 seriously popular shows or movie franchises) you don't need big budget movies, because that is a one off that I spend 2 hours watching and that is the end of it. thanks for my 17.99 pay per view and I will cancel at the end of the month. the foray into gaming is a plus... but it isn't the answer. I 100% believe the add tier Microsoft partnering is the beginning of their play to be acquired by Microsoft.
then the Video game studios Microsoft is acquiring can become "entertainment studios" and have huge ecosystems that span games, media content, ETC. Sony has this plan with bungie... may take years to materialize but it will happen. A Destiny movie could be quite good..... Or be an absolute failure. but they are slightly ahead of Microsoft on this plan. Microsoft did get their Halo show out of the blocks but ..... that is not a good product.

 

[beerseagulls]

Am I the only one who can't find anything worth watching on Netflix these days?

 

[Billicus]

I signed up for a month to watch Stranger Things, $20 is worth it for that show. Otherwise I will remain unsubscribed.

 

[arkmannj]

Raise prices
charge extra for standard definition (4k is pretty “standard” today I’d say)

worry about account sharers that are not likely to sign up just because they get booted.

make it harder for people who travel a lot

….make profit??

but hey atleast they have stranger things to count on

 

[Kuckuckstein]

I blame their subscriber loss on the constant emails they send out indicating which good shows are leaving Netflix with a list of sub-par Netflix-produced shows replacing them. Plain and simple, all the good studios are putting their content exclusively on their own streaming services and content is expensive to produce. Stranger Things is the best original content Netflix has going for them and while awesome, you can literally get Netflix for one month per year and binge that.

Yeah, but would you keep a running Disney, HBO or Apple subscription?

Disney content is so predictable and annoyingly polished, even the whole marvel universe starts to become pointless, overstretched CGI stuff.

HBO has good shows, but the ones I was interested in can also be rewatched with a month long subscription. And they killed Game of Thrones when they started to divert from the books. But of a Disney move.

And Apple’s stuff … just not my thing at all. I used the free trial that came with my latest iPhone … and canceled it already a month in.

So no. I think Netflix is just a general trend and the likes of Disney most likely only have a better trend because children want to watch their princesses and snow man again and again and again …

Maybe in general there has been produced too much, with too little depth. It is a bit like with music on the 1990’s: break troughs in electronics and software made it so easy for anyone to do music, that mass production killed originality.

These days the shows I enjoy the most have a new story to tell. I loved it when stranger things came out, but even that show starts to falter. I do however love Mindhunters and similar shows, but they often get cancelled too early.

It feels as if whenever producers stay true to true events, things can actually be really good. But it also seems that this will not capture the masses.

Anyway, in the end it may just be a general realization that we pay too much for entertainment and that we live in troubling times. And people should not forget that Netflix paved the way to make streaming a thing and kill Blu-ray and Co. Others - like Apple - may survive because they have more legs to stand on.

 

[kshitijshah]

Fewer subscribers -> less money -> less money to plow into content -> fewer subscribers?

it worked the other way around on the upside. Less money means more focus on quality of content and less money to burn. Its a good thing

 

[Jupeman]

Waste of money since its just Marvel crap

This comment no doubt saddens baby Yoda.

 

[atomwork]

It's because they are one of the only streaming holdouts that want to charge for 4K...in 2022.

If T-Mobile wouldn't pay for it, I would cancel it. Too many other options. Especially now with S2D

 

[IIGS User]

The main problem honestly is that they've been losing other network content as those services come online and they've been commissioning a lot of low budget schlock to replace that en masse. While I'm sure there are commenters here who will scream about "wokeness" as a problem that definitely aint it, the majority of folks paying for streaming services do, in fact, want more diversity, more LGBT+ and women led stories, etc. What the problem is is that so much of what they're producing is just super low quality. It's like they looked at early 90s daytime network TV and decided that was the model to emulate for some reason. They need less shows and movies and have the ones they fund get funded better.

I don't particularly care if content is more diverse, more women led stories, or more LGTBQ+. What I want to watch is entertaining TV with engaging stories that don't have predictable plot lines with bad actors.

What I care about is getting my money's worth. Everyone has differing tastes in TV. Right now I'm bopping back and forth between "The Terminal List" on Amazon Prime and "For All Mankind" on Apple TV. I couldn't tell you if either was more or less women or LGTBQ+ led or not. They're entertaining, and that's all that matters to me. I didn't seek these shows out for any other reason that hearing through word of mouth they were good and giving them a look.

I feel as though I get my money's worth from Prime as I use it for purchases as well, and Apple TV makes some really good programming, so I feel as though that's worth it as well.

I get Hulu and Disney+ and Apple Music as part of my Verizon Wireless bundle, so I don't see a compelling reason to re subscribe to Netflix right now. The quality of the content just isn't there and there always seems to be something else worth watching on one of the other streamers I all ready have.

Netflix did great when there was a lack of competition. If I were to add anything, I would add Paramount+ before I added Netflix if for nothing other than the Star Trek offerings, TNG in particular.

That used to be on Prime, and I could just binge watch that over and over....

 

[GizmoDVD]

This comment no doubt saddens baby Yoda.

Sure, you have 2 Seasons of Mando, 1 Boba and 1 Obi Wan.

That's sort of it, aside from the cartoons.

D+ is mostly kid shows and Marvel crap

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

I blame their subscriber loss on the constant emails they send out indicating which good shows are leaving Netflix with a list of sub-par Netflix-produced shows replacing them. Plain and simple, all the good studios are putting their content exclusively on their own streaming services and content is expensive to produce. Stranger Things is the best original content Netflix has going for them and while awesome, you can literally get Netflix for one month per year and binge that.

Makes me wonder if we are headed back to a world more similar to movie/tv show purchases and rentals from the old iTunes Store.

Maybe that model really was better.

 

[Realityck]

The 100 year aspect probably is not a hugely desired thing for many people in the audience. They might only care about newer stuff. Still doesn't change the fact the legacy studios are sitting on some pretty valuable properties. HBO Max already has a lot of the most famous older films like Casablanca, Maltese Falcon, Wizard of Oz, Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, etc. They even have old Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry cartoons, etc.

Netflix will never be able to compete with some of the franchise material that exists with the likes of Disney or Warner. Both Disney Plus & HBO Max are already loaded with superhero franchise stuff. Netflix used to have access to the Marvel movies for instance. That access is drying up and will continue to get worse for Netflix as the major studios put more emphasis on their own service instead of making royalties from Netflix.

I actually perfer some of the not well known classics. There is where so much archived content never seen the light of day from the 30's, 40's, 50's. Many genres TV series and movies. Netflix is very weak on this content, so is HBO Max representation. Thats where third parties like Tubi, Crackle, EPIX and others step up. MGM has an awful lot of missing content that Amazon shot for, but have yet to see. But to be candid I don't see Disney or WB for awhile supplying a lot of this content over what they have already made online. It takes time to transcode film to digital content. Both seem to be more inclined to pump out new content. Then we have the ridiculous Hulu existence to phase out so that Comcast can separate itself from that, So Disney content can add the adult Star section in the USA. Netflix content rotations are still clearly superior to whats offer by broadcast channels, so that whats most people's motivation these days, an alternative entertainment source, just like other streamers.