Netflix's Subscriber Growth Stalls (bbc.co.uk)

Netflix shares plunged by more than 14% on Monday, after the firm reported disappointing subscriber growth. While the entertainment service added 5.2 million subscribers last quarter, it forecasted a growth of 6.2 million. BBC reports: Investors are worried about Netflix's growth potential in the face of increased competition from tech giants such as Apple, YouTube and Amazon, as well as traditional firms, which have started to invest more in online streaming. Disney, for example, plans to launch its own streaming service and stop licensing some of its material to Netflix.

In a letter to investors, Netflix called it a "strong but not stellar quarter," ending with about 130 million subscribers globally. The firm added just 670,000 subscribers in the U.S. -- far short of the more than one million it added in the second quarter of 2017. It added 4.5 million subscribers internationally, fewer than the two most recent quarters but up 8% year-on-year. However, it said its finances were strong. The company reported $3.9 billion in quarterly revenue, up 40% compared to the second quarter of 2017. Profits totaled $384.3 million, almost six times the figure during the same period a year ago.

Comments

i can't answer for the op, but for me yes

[aepervius]

Since 100% of the stuff I get from grey source are *not* available at ALL in my country due to geolocation market restriction, the argument of lost sale does not even hold. I normal buy/license anything i watch, but company which decide my region should not be allowed to buy it ? Fuck them.

Re:The Decline?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dumping? No! Not renewing licenses on bargain bin fodder the "owners" decide to massively increase licencing costs for at the end of the contract: oh yes.

Oh noes! Steady growth! Therefore decline!

[Anonymous Coward]

They still added five million new subscribers. Less than "forecast", but it's still not bad. It means they're getting at least forty million dollahs a month extra in revenue. Quite a distance from actual decline. First the growth has to go negative before they'll actually start losing customers. But it's still positive, it just isn't growing as much as the professional wishful thinkers were wishing for. The growth of the growth (IOW the second derivative of revenue) has dropped to zero, but, you know, that's only bad for VCs who're trying to max their valuations. It's not bad for the company as a whole. They're still growing.

What they do with content I have no idea, I'm not a subscriber. Buy some stock, go to the stockholder meetings and petition in favour of your favourite "originals."

Re:The Decline?

[The-Ixian]

Uh.... aren't you forgetting to include a very important element here?

Netflix doesn't have commercials. Period.

That is reason enough for me to have Netflix alone and no other streaming media nor cable nor satellite subscriptions.

I would rather find a back catalog of an old series that I have never seen before and binge on that for several months than to try to watch new content with ads.

My feeling is that it will eventually come to Netflix anyway.... and it always does seem that way.... in any case, I can't miss what I never had.