Tech publisher TechCrunch reported yesterday that the world’s largest video streaming service Netflix (NLFX) has posted a loss of net subscriber base in the U.S. fixing the blame on hikes in subscription costs. Netflix’s loss of U.S. subscribers happened for the first time in eight years and it also missed its targets for overseas customers. Shares of Netflix tumbled more than 13% in after-market hours on July 18.
Netflix’s continued subscription price hikes might finally have reached the end of some customers’ patience in the U.S., judging from an overall paid subscriber decline the company reported in its quarterly earnings for its fiscal second quarter 2019 results. The company’s overall growth for paid subscribers climbed by 2.7 million worldwide, but it actually added 2.83 million new subscribers around the world — while losing around 130,000 net in the U.S. to account for the difference.*
* Netflix reports first net subscriber loss in the US, misses global subscriber growth predictions
Last year I wrote a piece on the creative freedom currently afforded by several streaming platforms such as Netflix’s. And the plethora of critically acclaimed movies and TV series, including Oscar winners, that audiences are served on demand some of which otherwise wouldn’t have seen the light of the day being ruthlessly entangled in financial disputes, creative controversies, or sheared mercilessly under the garb of censorship laws across the globe. That creative freedom allows viewers to watch immersive content in high-definition at a nominal rate while bestowing acclaimed filmmakers like Martin Scorcese, Alfonso Querón or David Fincher a safer platform to pursue their innovative endeavours without having to think about compromising their intellectuality, least of all getting jammed in the filmmaking process due to stringent production cost controls. As always I will attempt to look at the subscriber slump from a customer’s viewpoint to analyze if the dots could be connected in innovating the viewer’s experience.
To simplify the challenge in clear terms, how might we innovate the viewing experience to keep the audiences engaged? The launch of Apple TV+ has just made the online video streaming service industry that much more interesting, it joins a bevvy of other subscription services offering loads of original content. So what could Netflix do in order to retain or enhance its customer base regardless of this slump they are facing? I have 3 creative solutions.
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