Netflix Loses 200,000 Subscribers in Q1 2022, Blames Password Sharing and Other Factors for Stagnating Growth

Riccochet said:
they lose 200,000 subs

out of their current 200,000,000 subs

drop, meet bucket
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Attrition is still attrition even if it seems small. If that is a net loss meaning beyond new subs and lost subs they see negative growth that is something that established subscription based companies battle with all the time. Active paying accounts are SUPER valuable.

Here's the problem for Netflix. Lets say they stop letting subscribers share their services with family members and friends.

Guess what happens? Those parents in my age group who have netflix but don't really feel INVESTED in netflix, but only have it because their adult kids are still mooching off of them for the sub. They suddenly have no reason to keep a sub and shut it down. Now the kids.. MAY sub on their own but they are a newer generation who will sub for a month. Binge what they want to watch and then cancel. New shows releasing weekly will see them just wait for the season to be finished. Sub for a month. Watch them all and then cancel.

The solution is you release shows and give subscribers access to them based on if they were subbed for long enough for the season, or seasons. (For new stuff not for purchased shows that are 13 seasons long of course.) What this means is, lets take a 2 season 12 episode per season show. If you sub after it is out, you get to watch it 1 episode at a time for each week until you catch up on your 'subscribed' time. This will keep people that want to binge watch subscribed as long as Netflix can churn out shows they want to watch every 3 months or so. OR they subscribe long enough that they feel like it isn't beneficial to cancel.

Most of them will sub to a plan they like for binging their shows then minimize the plan the rest of the time to save on cost but not miss a show that releases. At least that's what I think.

Still better than having to report subscriber loss.
 
Grimlakin said:
The solution is you release shows and give subscribers access to them based on if they were subbed for long enough for the season
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That is ~a~ solution, but I don't think it would work.

People want to see the current thing so they can talk about it around the water cooler. If you are a few episodes back, you don't get in on the conversation. If you play the reverse and don't let them catch up on later episodes until they are caught up on sub time, then you have lost all context and back story for the current episodes. It breaks down either way you look a it.

There are 2 good solutions I see, neither are new though.

One way Disney and HBO (and others) do it now, and regular TV has done since it's existence - drizzle the stuff out slowly. That keeps people subscribed until the end of the season at least - and in the case of Hulu you could only catch up on the older stuff if you paid more. The big gaps in between seasons, and these short 8 or 10 episode seasons are bullshit and hurting the streaming services, as you got to have something to fill the gaps to keep people subscribed; not even Disney has enough running current shows to do that right now.

The other way to counter people dropping subs is to offer good deals on long term subscriptions.. the discounts on 6 mon and 1 year plans. Disney and HBO both do this; Netflix doesn't. Sure, you "lose" out on some revenue, but you don't see those massive swings in subscriber counts as your big name shows hit and roll off.

A potential third solution would be Amazon's approach (Apple started it, but has kinda pulled away from it) - let people just purchase a single show, rather than sub the entire channel. It often costs just about as much as subscribing, but you don't have to deal with remembering to cancel the subscription; it's just a flat cost, you get access to the show as it comes out. I've done this with a handful of things, and the second benefit is you don't have to have login credentials for multiple streaming services to use it.
 
Go figure, hiking prices and cracking down on trivial stuff like password sharing didn't help them out? Right as a ton of other new high profile streamers are scooping up the cash?

My Mom doesn't like Netflix, but doesn't mind it for free using my account. She always complains there's nothing to watch. Well, there is TONS to watch, just maybe not SPECIFICALLY the ONE movie she was looking for. You have to be flexible. But OMFG she would NOT shut up about that stupid Deepwater Horizon movie that never seemed to make it to NF. I ended up buying it for her on Vudu for $5. But I have to show her how to get to Vudu on her Roku and play the movie. Honestly she would be happy if the world never got away from VHS tapes.
 
Grimlakin said:
The solution is you release shows and give subscribers access to them based on if they were subbed for long enough for the season, or seasons. (For new stuff not for purchased shows that are 13 seasons long of course.) What this means is, lets take a 2 season 12 episode per season show. If you sub after it is out, you get to watch it 1 episode at a time for each week until you catch up on your 'subscribed' time. This will keep people that want to binge watch subscribed as long as Netflix can churn out shows they want to watch every 3 months or so. OR they subscribe long enough that they feel like it isn't beneficial to cancel.
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Hah, no. That will just lead to more piracy. That is like Humble Bundle's new Choice monthly rules. If you cancel/suspend for a month, you lose your 20% discount on their store and don't get it back for a year of continued subscription. The second I decide not to buy a monthly and lose that discount, I stop buying most games on their store at all especially when even with the 20% discount there are other stores that match that. They're lucky that there is usually 1-3 games in the monthy bundle that I want to play that is worth $12 combined.

I cut Netflix this last month after realizing I hadn't watched anything in 3 months and they were raising the price to $15. I'd been with them for 12 years.
 
Grimlakin said:
The solution is you release shows and give subscribers access to them based on if they were subbed for long enough for the season, or seasons. (For new stuff not for purchased shows that are 13 seasons long of course.) What this means is, lets take a 2 season 12 episode per season show. If you sub after it is out, you get to watch it 1 episode at a time for each week until you catch up on your 'subscribed' time. This will keep people that want to binge watch subscribed as long as Netflix can churn out shows they want to watch every 3 months or so. OR they subscribe long enough that they feel like it isn't beneficial to cancel.

Most of them will sub to a plan they like for binging their shows then minimize the plan the rest of the time to save on cost but not miss a show that releases. At least that's what I think.

Still better than having to report subscriber loss.
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LOL, that's a great solution, if their goal is to loose even more subscribers and promote piracy. The message they are sending there is: No, you can't access new shows even if you pay us. OK, then why should I pay you? I wish to watch the show I subscribe for right away, not 3 months later, when I reach the rank of "streaming captain".

Creating basically a class system among subscribers only creates problems, not solves them. What if you pause your subscription for 10 days, you start from scratch again?

No, the solution to their problem is not dumping whole seasons at once on the service. Release one episode per week. Maybe make two for the first week at most. And bring back traditional long format series with 20-30 episodes per season, instead of the current 6-13 format, which I always thought too short. Especially when you put it out on a single day.
 
@MadMummy76

"Streaming Captain"... could have multiple meanings, LOL. I think I should change my forum username to that!
 
Netflix has lost a lot of content as more and more entertainment companies have tried to create their own streaming services. This has forced Netflix to depend more and more on their own original content. The problem is that Netflix will seemingly give anyone money and greenlight almost anything. While there are some gems there, Netflix Originals have become memes for good reason.

Netflix spends money on stupid crap like adaptations of anime for example. That never goes well as translating something like that well is next to impossible. Dumb decisions like this are but one example of why their original content is trash. Netflix becomes less appealing all the time as more and more providers go their own way and Netflix adaptations seemingly keep getting worse.
 
Dan_D said:
The problem is that Netflix will seemingly give anyone money and greenlight almost anything. While there are some gems there, Netflix Originals have become memes for good reason.
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I actually watched this. I don't remember a single f*cking second of it. I think my brain blocked it out.
 
I get soooo much more value outta paying per month for a Usenet subscription rather than paying for sh1tty-@ss streaming services like Netflix.
 
MadMummy76 said:
Haven't heard that word since the 90s.
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I still use torrents from time to time, but in the past decade or more I switched over to grabbing most sh1t through Usenet. In the 90s/early 2000s, before I got into torrents, I was using IRC to get stuff.
 
Dan_D said:
My curiosity may get the best of me. I enjoy a ****ty B movie from time to time. Not Starship Troopers 2 though. There is no excuse for that one.
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HBO Max popped that one up on my suggested list the other day. I'm still cringing. That reminds me, I haven't watched the old DVDs of the Roughnecks animated series in a while. Those were half-decent for the time.

 
It's an interesting conundrum that will see many people leave. Curious if it will be even more than Netflix suspects. I wonder if blockbuster execs are going.. "see how you *******s like it "
 
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