While it doesn’t seem like something to celebrate, Netflix has been breathing a sigh of relief after losing almost a million subscribers in the last quarter. After suffering a huge drop in subscriber numbers at the beginning of the year, Netflix had been forecasting a possible loss of up to two million paying subscribers, so the news of the actual figure being around 970,000, as per IndieWire, is something of a result for the streamer and means that their total subscriber numbers remain around 220.7 million across the world.
Netflix appeared to be in trouble just a few months ago, when its predicted rise in subscribers failed to happen, and instead the company was left with a large drop-off. This had a knock-on effect on Netflix’s share prices and set off a knee-jerk reaction that saw the streamer re-evaluating a number of aspects of their release model, spending and staffing.
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As part of the fallout of their financial situation, Netflix laid off 150 employees and revealed that despite huge recent spending numbers, including a reported $30 million per episode budget for Stranger Things and movies like Red Notice costing around $200 million, they would also be looking to curb some of this spending in future. Even with that in place, there were a number of industry insiders who remained doubtful about how Netflix could manage to turn around its fortune, but it seems that their fightback has already begun.
Netflix Expect to See Subscriber Volumes Rise Again This Year
Despite the shaky start to the year, Netflix has been making all the right moves recently to suggest they can turn around their recent run, and they are currently predicting an increase in subscriber numbers over the next three months to the tune of around 1 million, which would counterbalance the losses suffered recently and steady their numbers again. While it would be easy to reject this as wishful thinking, Netflix has a number of things coming together in its favor.
The last month has seen the release of Stranger Things season 4, one of the most anticipated shows to arrive on the platform in the last few years. In addition to that, there has also been a third season of The Umbrella Academy, which recently spent a little time at the top of Netflix’s streaming chart, and soon the long-awaited adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman will premiere. With new seasons of The Witcher, Sex Education Squid Game, and of course, the final season of Stranger Things all to come over the next couple of years, Netflix will be counting on these core IPs to continue to build their subscriber base.
As well as new content, Netflix is finally looking to give subscribers the option of taking an ad-supported cheaper subscription. As one of the most expensive streaming platforms to subscribe to, this option could certainly allow Netflix to hold onto those who have recently left the service due to the rising cost of living. With the ad-supported option’s introduction imminent, it won’t take long to see whether this strategy is helping to improve their declining subscriber numbers.
