Netflix is one of the oldest streaming platform on the market. It attracted its customers with unlimited content whenever and wherever without the adds like regular television have. High quality content and wide range of titles available made company unbeatably the most known for a very long time. Corporation announced that by November they will add fourth, cheaper subscription option containing advertisements. Lack of those was the reason why people signed up in the first place. How does the future looks like for Netflix?
Even though Disney+ made its entrance to the market in 2019 other streaming platforms maintained their clients as thousands of people started their journey with broadcasting services during lockdown. Now when everything is coming back to normal they don’t have time to sit on a couch and watch movies all day, so they cancel many subscriptions and hold on to only few, the most entertaining ones. Statistic shows that Netflix is not one of them as they’re loosing more and more customers. It reached its peak in 2021 but in this year number of clients decreases. Why?
Mostly because Netflix’s content is simply no longer good. For past few years platform is mostly based on its original content, which, in many cases is very predictable and similar to each other. Even if something is more interesting it does not get renewed after one or two seasons. They don’t provide as much new movies, and the ones that already were on platform disappear in order to appear on other broadcasting services. Not to mention the fact, that Netflix is the most expensive streaming platform among its competition. The same old titles, disappointing new ones and high price makes obvious choice of which subscription to cancel.
Yet company does not give up. Reed Hastings revealed, that new created payment plan will cost only $6.99 but it will contain around five minutes of adds per one hour of watching. In that case scenario Netflix will come close to regular TV program. That solution will not attract a lot of new customers. More likely people that already pay monthly subscription will just change plan for cheaper. Part of them might’ve wanted to cancel payment completely, but some might have not even planned this as just an opportunity to save money appeared. However it is expected for Netflix to earn about $3 billion in 2026 just for advertising. That does not look like drop of incomes at all.
Even though forecasting for Netflix looks bright many people are bored of its content. So if in the future company will base on money from adds and not the customers public opinion of the platform might get lower and lower. It will lead to more people cancelling subscriptions. Unless Are we going to witness yet another great company’s fall? Because who will pay for advertising their product, if nobody will watch it.
sources:
https://www.ft.com/content/71994db7-6a37-4a3d-b6a8-b68a151bc81a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiEJhVcx0H0
https://www.statista.com/statistics/250934/quarterly-number-of-netflix-streaming-subscribers-worldwide/
As an user of Netflix, I must admit – it’s not as good now as it used to be before. Netflix reached his climax during 2020, when most people in the world were forced to stay at their homes. Many people didn’t knew how to entertain themselves and so the Netflix was the best thing out there. As of right now, they don’t have any interesting content out there. The whole point of Netlix is that they have their own ‘Netflix Originals’ series, which consisted of films, serials and documentaries vasting from many many topics and genres. Beside that, they have a few known films from time to time (because of bought rights and licenses to such film). However, from my point of view, I noticed, that in early 2018 (moment when I joined Netflix) there were plenty of interesting movies, there was little or no Netflix Original series back then, and I could almost watch every film/serial I basically wanted. After 4 years, I can see that netflix had replaced those films, with cheaper productions, just to use them as ‘fillers’, so that they technically would have a wide variety of films. Because of that you can mostly watch a productions from France, Spain, India, China etc. There are little or no movies from countries like USA, beside few classics. This move in my opinion, is Netflix’s way to save up the costs, and benefit from higher profits. I now understand why people are leaving, as they are keep increasing the prices, while decreasing their services (in this case a variety of content). I also use platforms such as Canal+, HBO and Player, and I can see the difference between those platforms. I even may resign from Netflix in near future. In my opinion this company will be like Nokia for smartphones industry, but for movie-broadcasting platform industry. Being a first company, and being giant at the beginning, but later falling down and being overtaken and eaten by competition such as Disney+ is a very probable case for Netflix. Thank you for great article, hope to read from you more!
From my point of view, Netflix will not fall. Of course, they will lose a significant number of customers but it will not be crucial for company income. Netflix has already started to invest in new shows, films, and series which could potentially save customer count.
I am not sure if such big company as Netflix will actually collapse, however undoubtedly it will lose his customers, as it was losing for past year. During the lockdown Netflix was definitely the most recognisable streaming platform with films and shows. Nowadays, it became more harsh for the company to maintain the profit from its best time. Mostly due to competitors, like HBO, PrimeVideo, Disney+ etc. But also due to lose in the interest of its production and uploaded shows by its clients. Netflix should improve its position on the market by applying proper changes to keep their clients.
I totally agree with you. As a regular netflix user, I personally think netflix is running out of good content. Most movies or series are similar to one another or just get boring over time and a lot of good shows i start watching, end up being cancelled, which is very dissapointing and time wasting. Also, the idea of adding ads just ruins the whole concept of netflix. I really hope they improve netflix for the best.