In the year of our lord 2022, Netflix made a horrible and tragic discovery. Rather than the 2.5 million subscriber growth they expected in 2022, their viewership had in fact dropped, by 200,000! For the first time in the company’s history, they had made a loss in subscribers.
What could be causing this sudden dip in viewers that’s keeping Netflix from joining the FTSE100? Is it the start of the end for streaming services? Are Hulu, Disney+ and other notable streaming right behind Netflix? We think not. We’re breaking down the Netflix dip in subscribers and why it’s probably solely a Netflix issue.
Middling content
One of Netflix’s explanations for this historic drop in viewership is that Covid slowed their growth, of which their analysts should be met with just a giant question mark. Where were they during Covid? No past perspective on lockdowns and the lockdown culture that emerged gets mentioned without the words “Tiger King”, “Bo Burnham” or “Squid Game”.
It’s almost absurd. The biggest streaming service of the time didn’t gain from having everyone at home with nothing to do but consume entertainment?
But it’s also worth mentioning that those three examples up there are Netflix Originals – and outliers. Netflix’s catalogue of movies and TV shows that aren’t created by the company themselves are generally middling content. Movies you thought were “meh” when they came out 10 years ago, sitcoms that haven’t aged well, and TV shows that aren’t worth the commitment of more than three seasons.
As for Netflix Originals, they vary wildly from “amazing” to “awful”, hitting every dial in between. For every Stranger Things, there is a 13 Reasons Why. For every Uncut Gems there is a Kissing Booth. And there’s Bridgerton in between.
There is, in fact, an ongoing joke that says users spend so much time trying to find something on Netflix that’s worth watching that they spend more time browsing than watching. And another joke that Dear White People, another Netflix Original, tapped into (at least three times) that there is nothing more disappointing than the third season of a Netflix Original show.
That, coupled with the fact that there are a lot of quality streaming services hitting the market, might have something to do with the sudden dip in viewers.
There’s better out there
And while we’re on other platforms, Netflix might want to see what’s being sold and step their game up.
Ah, gaming. Netflix has recently wandered into mobile gaming, offering up a few original Stranger Things-themed pixel games and a mix of bought games for the mobile.
Who asked for this? No one. No one asked Netflix to start a mobile gaming platform within their app, but they found out there is money in mobile gaming, and here we are.
Instead, people were asking Hulu for the very latest in movies to be in the cinema on their home screens. They were asking Disney to please put everything Disney in one place. They were asking every channel to release their own streaming apps to get rid of their cable box. They were asking Broadway and the West End to please stream their shows to people who can’t catch a flight to New York or London. They were asking for the ads in their music streaming to please stop, Spotify! And for everything else, there’s YouTube.
Netflix becoming the Blockbuster of the future has found out exactly what that means. A catalogue full of Bargain Bin movies we all saw three years ago (or didn’t see three years ago), does not make a sustainable entertainment platform.
Password sharing
And of course, no mention of Netflix comes without its usual griping of password sharing. It’s like listening to grandpa muttering about the kids “loitering” on his street. No one cares, grandpa.
According to Netflix, it was hard to figure out just how many people were actually using the platform when there are single accounts spread out over different locations. Does one £9.99 a month subscription really entail the bill provider or does that include that ex that never logged out, your aunt that “doesn’t know how to work it”, or your mother because she only wanted to watch one thing? And apparently that accounts for some of the loss in subscribers they had to report. Sure, Jan.
Netflix are at least better than Apple in that they appear to be making a real attempt to try and come up with a solution that allows them to profit but also not force their customers into an ultimatum. Because, given all the reasons laid out above, plus the fact that our economy is tanking as cost of living goes through the roof, the first thing to be struck off the utilities list will be our streaming services, and I don’t like Netflix’s chances when up against the Spotifys, Disneys, and Hulus of the world.
If Netflix is wondering where its subscribers are going, they might want to get familiar with the idea of a saturated market, no doubt eventually going to be an oversaturated market. Just because you’re first doesn’t mean you’re the best. The king is dead, long live the king.
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