Netflix Raises Prices As Password Boost Fades (bbc.com) 40
Netflix has begun raising prices in several countries, including Japan, parts of Europe, and Africa, as it seeks to sustain growth following its crackdown on password sharing. While its recent financial results show strong revenue growth, the company faces challenges in finding new subscribers and aims to boost future growth through advertising and fresh content. The BBC reports: In its latest results, Netflix announced that it had added 5.1 million subscribers between July and September - ahead of forecasts but the smallest gain in more than a year. The company is under pressure to show investors what will power growth in the years ahead, as its already massive reach makes finding new subscribers more difficult. The last time Netflix saw signs of slowdown, in 2022, it launched measures to stop password sharing and said it would offer a new streaming option with advertisements.
The crackdown unleashed a new wave of growth. The firm has added more than 45 million new members since last year and has 282 million subscribers globally. Analysts also expect advertisements to eventually become big business for Netflix. For now, however, Netflix has said it remains "early days" and warned it did not expect it to start driving growth until next year, despite many subscribers opting for the ad-supported plan. The plan, which is the company's least expensive option, accounted for 50% of new sign-ups in the places where it is offered in the most recent quarter, Netflix said. Even without a boost from advertising, Netflix said revenue in the July-September period was up 15% compared with the same period last year, to more than $9.8 billion. Profit also rose from $1.6 billion in the same period last year to $2.3 billion.
The crackdown unleashed a new wave of growth. The firm has added more than 45 million new members since last year and has 282 million subscribers globally. Analysts also expect advertisements to eventually become big business for Netflix. For now, however, Netflix has said it remains "early days" and warned it did not expect it to start driving growth until next year, despite many subscribers opting for the ad-supported plan. The plan, which is the company's least expensive option, accounted for 50% of new sign-ups in the places where it is offered in the most recent quarter, Netflix said. Even without a boost from advertising, Netflix said revenue in the July-September period was up 15% compared with the same period last year, to more than $9.8 billion. Profit also rose from $1.6 billion in the same period last year to $2.3 billion.
They no longer are pricing on 12 months per user (Score:4, Interesting)
They are pricing for the "steamer hopping" crowd.
Maybe they expect a subscriber for six months out of a year. Or three.
There isn't an expectation of a constant subscription any longer, and the efforts to be unsubscribing easier will only contribute to this.
Sports is what will tie people to a service (for part of the year). Sports is actually what drove me to use an over-the-air antenna for live TV (which took me back to the 1980s, having to fiddle with the antenna, no pause or recording, not even a VCR!).
Prime is a completely different beast (their channel subscription is the envy of the industry no doubt, even Apple just "subscribed" to that). PlutoTV is the long tail (an idea I had a while back but no ability to realize).
Re:They no longer are pricing on 12 months per use (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Nothing to worry about (Score:3)
Re:They no longer are pricing on 12 months per use (Score:5, Interesting)
The real problem is that there isn't enough new quality content every month to warrant keeping a subscription running year long.
I haven't had a Netflix subscription for well over a year now, and I'd imagine that I could probably catch up on the shows I was interested in after just a week of binge watching.
Re: (Score:3)
The real problem is that there isn't enough new quality content every month to warrant keeping a subscription running year long.
Ding ding ding! Winner winner chicken dinner!
We kept Netflix around, year-round, for quite a few years. But they kept losing (intentionally or not) much of their worthwhile third-party content, and their own "Originals" were mostly uninteresting lowest-common-denominator pablum. AND their prices kept going up! So now they're just part of the churn - subscribe for a couple months, watch the new episodes of what few things they carry and we care about, then unsubscribe again.
Re: (Score:3)
The real problem is that there isn't enough new quality content every month to warrant keeping a subscription running year long.
I haven't had a Netflix subscription for well over a year now, and I'd imagine that I could probably catch up on the shows I was interested in after just a week of binge watching.
A market analyst at Citi stated on Yahoo Finance (on 18-Oct-2024 during a YF morning show) that Netflix has at least 4 issues that bother the larger investment community:
- Large investment fund analysts see Netflix as a 2nd tier ("it sucks less than the rest of it's sector") alternative to the top tier Mag-7 stocks in the markets, yet Netflix financials ("the fundamentals") don't back up their stock performance.
- Some "market makers" are now spouting price & earnings targets for Netflix that are way out
Re: (Score:2)
I've been watching a lot of Peacock material while I've been off the last couple of weeks. They want to charge $7.99/mo but blast into your programs with ads. Unfortunately the ads are repetitive and largely irrelevant. If I'm not going to buy Crest Whitening Strips after seeing their inane commercial once or twice, why the hell would I buy it when you saturate me with ads for it every damned commercial break for hours? That's more likely to get me NOT to buy it, much like the "Kars 4 Kids" commercials make
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know how the market can start to reduce the enshittification. I think we're all too far gone and are driving into the mouth of a bad dystopian novel.
I think there are 3 problems to be addressed:
- There are WAAY TOOO MANY streaming services out there, all competing for the same "eyeballs", content, and ad revenue.
- Lack of Perceived Ad Value = Advertisers are questioning "the value proposition" of placing ads with all these different streaming services, so ad supply is artificially restricted by the ad suppliers and leads to duplicative ad 'hits' that you see.
- Lack of Viewer Interest In Content Catalog = Many streaming services are no longer showing con
Re: (Score:2)
Psst. You can only grow to saturation. (Score:5, Interesting)
Once you hit that point, there is no more growth. You can do things that look like growth, such as buying another company, but that's still not real growth. You have reached maturity. Your growth phase is complete. Adjusting prices to maintain acceptable profitability is the way forward. I mean, I guess they could do things to encourage population growth, but that's a long term strategy and not something that's a good fit for quarterly jackpot-oriented investors.
In the alternative... (Score:3)
Burn Netflix to the ground and sell the assets to three or four new startups that can actually grow for a few years, merge and consolidate, and then end up with one single The New AT&T, err Netflix. Wash, rinse, repeat in perpetuity.
Re: (Score:3)
When there are several separate streaming providers, they all have different content, so it is a big hassle of account-hopping to find what you want.
When there is one big streaming provider, the price is way too high and the content providers get way too little of that money, as it all goes into the administration of the big streamer.
If we want an actually good system, we are going to need a different model. Something where the available content is all the same regardless of what provider you use, so they
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Like all despots, they'll do what ever it takes to maintain that relevan
Re: (Score:2)
Company could simply start selling something else to continue grow.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly.
Also, as Adam Conover (yeah, that Adam from "Adam Ruins Everything", he's also one of the WGA negotiators in that last strike) explains [slashdot.org], Netflix deliberately deliberately price dumped for years, telling investors that this was necessary to secure a monopoly on premium streaming, knowing fully well that it was not a viable long-term business model. The other major distributors followed the same business model to try and compete with Netflix and, as expected, failed because Netflix already had the fir
You did not stop them the first time (Score:5, Insightful)
You did not stop them when they broke their own promises for more profit, so now they will continue to squeeze until they have found the absolute breaking point. Until then it will just keep getting worse and worse.
Just like Google cracking down on Adblock. The internet is slowly but surely becoming hostile towards the users and the platforms are throwing their weight around ruthlessly.
Infinite growth (Score:3)
They didn't really crack down on password sharing (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Basic math (Score:2)
2 months of binge watching a show equals to buying one season of the same show on a physical media you can watch anytime and nobody can take it away from you.
Except nobody releases their shows on media any longer, for fears of piracy and loss of revenue, keeping audience hostage of their streaming services.
Yes, mankind has become both lazy and stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Except nobody releases their shows on media any longer, for fears of piracy and loss of revenue...
Nobody is avoiding physical media releases due to "fears of piracy". Shows can already be pirated off the original streaming platform, arguably easier since they are coming down in a codec and bitrate friendly to streaming devices and users with slower Internet connections compared to ripping a blu-ray disc. Not releasing on home video probably increases piracy. When you can't buy it to own people will do things to "insure" against them losing access if the original streaming platform ever decides to stop c
Re:Basic math (Score:4, Insightful)
You are not hostage. You have the choice to dump it.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, but he's "lazy and stupid". I'm so lazy I could never bother to sign up. On occasion there's a movie I might want to see, but I don't know how I'd verify it's on Netflix, and there are cheaper ways to rent one or two movies per month. But between work, exercising, books, games, music, going to the range, porn, food, and choice YouTube - I really don't have time for Netflix.
Growth (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is the constant need to show growth.
Not every business can grow indefinitely. Not every business needs to.
Can't we just have stable businesses that make a nice profit?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Companies that don't grow will eventually lose their market share to companies that do grow. So answer to your question is no, with the current rules of the game.
Re: (Score:2)
nothing can grow indefinitely, specially not business, this always reminds me of the quote "Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a finite planet is either a madman or an economist."
Re: (Score:2)
Go ahead, keep raising prices (Score:4, Insightful)
It costs me nothing to cancel. . . .
Re: (Score:1)
It costs me nothing to cancel. . . .
But will you... Based on the number of people who have said they would cancel their Netflix subscription with literally every Netflix story here on /. in the past decade I'm surprised that anyone at all still has Netflix on this site. Even better when you see repeat people saying they will cancel.
They have the data, they are watching it. You're just a person, not significant in the scheme of the subscriber pool.
Disney too! (Score:3)
https://www.cnet.com/tech/serv... [cnet.com] :(
Netflix seeks to please shareholders... (Score:4, Insightful)