By Nickie Louise
Netflix has had a very bad year. This year alone, the company lost about two-thirds of its value. In addition, the company also lost nearly 1.2 million subscribers in the first two quarters of 2022. The streaming giant also recorded subscriber loss for the first time in a decade.
At its peak, Netflix had 221 million subscribers spanning 91 countries with over 1 billion hours of TV and video watched. Once the envy of Hollywood and the technology world, the streaming giant was thought to be invincible.
But with competition coming from other big players like Disney Plus, Peacock, and others, Netflix, for the first time, saw a decline in the numbers of its subscribers. But here’s the biggest clue yet Netflix is in deeper trouble—One in four Netflix users say they’re planning to ditch Netflix this year due to pricing hikes and the high cost of living caused by the ongoing inflation.
According to a survey of 1,000 Americans about their Netflix habits, 25 percent said that they planned to leave the streaming service this year. That could mean that over 18 million US subscribers will leave the already beleaguered company—and an estimated $272 million in lost subscriber revenue for the streaming company.
The survey, which was conducted by Reviews.org, found that about 40 percent of people said that they will exit Netflix due to the recently announce price rise. Nearly two-thirds of respondents cited Netflix’s increasing cost as a reason for leaving the streaming service.
The subscribers have a point. Currently, Netflix has the highest average plan cost among the eight most popular streaming services in the United States. And as a result, 30% of surveyed Netflix users said they share their passwords with people outside their household. Below is the price of Netflix versus competitors
It’s not just about the high prices. Netflix is getting stale. One in three respondents said Netflix no longer has the shows they want to watch and 30% said that they use other streaming services more. You can see the other two reasons in image below.
The survey is a further confirmation of a recent mini-documentary from CNBC. Just two days ago, CNBC released a video titled, “The Fall of Netflix?” In the video, CNBC discussed how Netflix went from a $314 market cap company to $99.77 billion today. The mini-docu also highlighted how Netflix lost to rival Disney+. For example, “in Q2 of 2022, Netflix lost nearly 1 million subscribers as rival Disney+ added roughly 14 million new subscribers,” CNBC reported.
In an attempt to top the hemorrhage of subscribers, in July, Netflix partnered with Microsoft to offer a new lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan for consumers, in addition to its existing ads-free basic, standard, and premium plans.
