Troubled by a loss of subscribers, Netflix Cancels Several Shows

In the aftermath of the huge financial hit it took due to a significant loss of subscribers, Netflix put in place several measures to overcome the crisis, among which is the cancellation of several projects.

The animation department of the streaming giant was hit the hardest by this decision. Many animated shows, including the long-awaited adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Twits, have been abandoned.

On April 19th, Netflix shared that it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of the year and that it expects to lose another 2 million in the second, an announcement that caused its stock market value to plummet, with a $54 billion drop. This decline, the first recorded by the American streaming platform in more than a decade, worries investors who are now reconsidering the prospects of Netflix in particular and the limits of streaming services in general.

Netflix attributed most of its North American subscriber losses to higher prices. The streaming platform executives said that Netflix usually regained these lost subscribers over time, recalling that the company has increased its prices several times in its main markets and still continued to gain customers. To fix the issue, the company also said it was considering implementing a crackdown on password sharing.

Netflix could quickly cut down on the most obvious cases of password sharing, such as suspicious websites that offer someone’s account for $1 a month. However, things get more complicated when it comes to sharing with family and friends, as the streaming giant doesn’t want to upset subscribers who pay more for their loved ones to enjoy the service at the same time in different locations.

Currently, Netflix is testing a solution in Latin America where subscribers must pay extra to give access to the people of their choice. “If you’ve got a sister, let’s say, that’s living in a different city, you want to share Netflix with her, that’s great. We’re not trying to shut down that sharing, but we’re going to ask you to pay a bit more to be able to share with her”, said Greg Peters, Netflix’s chief operation officer on an earnings call last Tuesday.

However, to pay for all its programming, which will cost about $18 billion this year, Netflix must further increase its prices. A reality that explains the company’s decision to introduce a cheaper version with advertising.

Netflix said, however, that competition was one of four reasons for its customer loss. Disney+, which is now approaching 130 million subscriptions, is in fact its biggest streaming competitor in terms of subscribers.

Amidst this streaming crisis, competitors who don’t rely on the money made from streaming, namely Amazon and Apple, don’t have to worry. Both tech giants have in fact created streaming services to sell other products. However, Apple TV+’s growing influence and the fact that it recently beat Netflix for the Oscar for Best Picture certainly didn’t make matters easier for Netflix. That said, Netflix’s difficulties do not bode well for its competitors, either.

Warner Bros, Discovery (owner of HBO Max), Walt Disney and Paramount Global, saw their shares fall this week after the announcement of Netflix’s subscriber losses, while the new CNN service, announced with great fanfare, went out of business after only one month of operation.