In the streaming world, Netflix is still the leader. They produce about a thousand new shows a week (a slight exaggeration) and cancel just as many.
At the beginning of the year, they launched an offensive that would send shivers down the spines of a lot of “subscribers” as well as turn the streaming world on its ear.
They were going to crackdown on password sharing.
Before we get to numbers, there had already been kinks in the Netflix armor. Even though a thousand new shows (exaggeration) were hitting our CTVs, quality had been slipping for some time. Advertising was coming in. This wasn’t your millennials Netflix any longer.
So, when Netflix told the world that they added 5.9 million new subscribers and 2.7% revenue, a lot of folks, both subscribers and financiers, said “whoa whoa whoa, that can’t be right. Are you sure?”
Netflix said, “Yup, no more questions.”
And that was that. No more follow ups. No balance sheets. No look under the hood.
Apparently, the move to stop sharing passwords drove millions to fork over money for less than stellar programming.
Huh?
This could have a few ramifications for both Netflix and the streaming world. First, stock prices dropped almost immediately because Wall Street doesn’t like it when you say, “we got this, but don’t ask us to prove it cause we ain’t.”
As Netflix loses its footing, all the other streaming services will start following suit. Disney has laid off over 7,000 employees (not an exaggeration) and is revamping their streaming output. WBD made HBO into MAX and I don’t know where to find the app on my phone anymore.
First it was the advertising fail that turned into a win. Then it was a password share fail that turned into a “win.” But now will a stock market fail turn into a win? Can Netflix still show that they can still be bullet proof? Will the rest of the streaming world continue to crumble as well? Are we going to be forced to go back to linear TV? (Huge exaggeration).
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