Netflix Loses Nearly A Million Subscribers In Second Quarter Of 2022

Streaming giant, Netflix, has announced that it lost almost one million subscribers in the second quarter of 2022.

Fortunately for the platform, however, the number of subscribers lost is less than what was expected as the platform had forecasted earlier in the year that it would lose 2 million subscribers in the second quarter.

The platform disclosed that it lost a total of 970,000 subscribers between April and July, adding that it would however add one million new subscribers in the third quarter of the year. Following the announcement, Netflix shares rose by about 8% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, CNN reports.

Prior to the announcement, Netflix had been having a particularly negative year after it lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter which in turn led to a $50 billion loss in the company’s market capitalization.

Things are now looking up for the platform as its second-quarter profit reached $1.4 billion and its revenue rose by about 8.6% to reach $7.9 billion.

Ironically, Netflix lost the most subscribers (1.3 million) from its largest market, the USA and Canada in the second quarter. But that was offset by increased subscriptions elsewhere.

In a letter to its investors, the company disclosed plans on how it intends to increase revenue and membership.

“Our challenge and opportunity is to accelerate our revenue and membership growth by continuing to improve our product, content, and marketing as we’ve done for the last 25 years, and to better monetize our big audience.

“We’re in a position of strength given our $30 billion-plus in revenue, $6 billion in operating profit last year, growing free cash flow and a strong balance sheet,” the letter read.

The company also revealed that one of the things that helped it from losing more subscribers this quarter was the release of the fourth season of its original sci-fi show, Stranger Things.

“In its first four weeks, ‘Stranger Things’ season four generated 1.3 billion hours viewed, making it our biggest season of English [language] TV ever,” the company said.

THE WHISTLER reported last week that Netflix partnered with Microsoft to power a new ad-supported tier to its subscription options, a move that could further serve to increase its subscription numbers in the future.

Netflix COO, Greg Peters, said although the partnership is still in the early stages, Microsoft had proven its ability to support all its advertising needs.

“In April we announced that we will introduce a new lower-priced ad-supported subscription plan for consumers, in addition to our existing ads-free basic, standard, and premium plans. Today we are pleased to announce that we have selected Microsoft as our global advertising technology and sales partner,” Peters said.