Netflix anti-effect: streaming loses subscribers, promotions, great series. What happened and who took the lead?

For more than 10 years, Netflix has occupied the streaming platform market, but this year suddenly lost ground: in its report for the first quarter of 2022, the company reported a loss of 200,000 subscribers, but according to estimates, on the contrary, increase the audience by 2.5 million people. In the second quarter, the trend of decreasing the number of users continued (970 thousand). As a result, Netflix also lost stock: it fell 35% even after the first report was released, after which news of the dismissal of employees from the streaming animation division added fuel to the fire. Against the backdrop of numbers with a minus sign, the company also lost out to rivals with this year’s two most anticipated premieres: “House of the Dragon” and “Rings of Power”, which were released on HBO Max and Amazon. And while the Bridgertons, Discovering Anna, Tinder sequel to 2022, which has not yet been released Wednesday, with Netflix, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings-level projects, they are of course competitive, although they can boast a sequel. For example, the first episode of Home received a record 9.9 million viewers for HBO Max, and Rings had the best opening in Amazon history with over 25 million viewers.

In Netflix itself, the loss of subscribers is precisely associated with competition, the simultaneous use of one account by several people (the company claims that at least 100 million viewers use the accounts of friends, relatives, colleagues), and the termination of business in Russia, which created about 700 thousand profiles with. Another reason is that in the United States, the monthly subscription cost increases by one and a half dollars. As such, 600,000 viewers in North America and Canada refused to use Netflix, but that was offset by a stream of Asian viewers thanks to “The Squid Game,” “We’re All Dying,” and other South Koreans (and not only) streaming hits. projects.

One way or another, the Western press is betting more on the company’s policy as the past nine months are marked as the worst in its existence in Netflix history, and the platform’s management attributes the overall decline to trade. For example, ScreenRant writes that Netflix still streams all episodes at once: this leads, firstly, to spoilers, and secondly, to other stories quickly. The same HBO Max, one of Netflix’s main competitors, releases episodes every week, allowing users to stay on the platform longer. For example, “Dragon House” was released from August 21 to October 24 – and the company’s account already has a two-month subscription.

Another gem in the Netflix garden is flying in for so many new movies and series – there are premieres on the platform almost daily, but most don’t even get a good promotion and may be unknown to viewers. And those who do not suffer from a lack of marketing activities often do not meet the expectations of the audience.

This happened, for example, with “Red Notice” with Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds and Dwayne Johnson, which cost Netflix $200 million and swayed on the verge of a “failure” (the film has only 6.3 on IMDb). Or with “The Gray Man” starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, which is supposed to be a new Bond movie but only earned a 6.5 on IMDb.

But that doesn’t stop Netflix from remaining the biggest streaming service: with 221.64 million subscribers, neither HBO Max (76.8 million), Amazon (more than 200 million in 2021), nor Disney+ (152.1 million). It is unknown how much the company can hold its palm, especially since its competitors are growing exponentially: Disney + increased its viewership by 20 million in the quarter alone, HBO Max showed a result of 3 million, and this is before. Stream on the House of the Dragon platform, where after the end of Game of Thrones, 40% of viewers who left it can return to their streams.

Netflix clearly understands the level of risk, and as such, the company plans to launch a new cheap rate with ads initially – rumored to cost between $7 and $9 instead of the standard 15.49. Reed Hastings, co-founder and director of the company, explained this decision by the fact that the platform wants to give its users a choice. The management of the platform also plans to focus on improving the quality of their projects: the letter to the shareholders says that they are now choosing shows more carefully, and they are also revising the list of already approved ones and canceling some of them. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Netflix has allocated more than $20 billion to create new content this year – a budget that can’t be compared to the numbers of other platforms or even major Hollywood studios. And while this amount does not justify itself – fortunately for competitors and, unfortunately, for viewers.