Netflix has taken the world by storm with its unique movie and TV show selection. The company has also become an important source of income for content creators, but it is still not profitable. Will Netflix be able to find a way to generate profit or will they continue their downward financial spiral?
“To Prosper, Can Netflix Become a Multi” is a question that has been asked and answered many times. Netflix was created in 1997. Read more in detail here: when was netflix created.
Andre M. Chang/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/Zuma Press/
Netflix blamed a number of factors for its poor first quarter performance, including the conflict in Ukraine, the world’s recovery from stay-at-home Covid, competition from new streamers, and password sharing—nearly one-third of Netflix subscribers are allegedly stealing the service.
Paying consumers, on the other hand, seem to be departing at an alarming pace. Netflix plans to lose another two million dollars in the second quarter after losing 200,000 in the first. No surprise the stock dropped 35% on Wednesday, extending a slide that started in January and prompted a similar piece here.
The nagging issue is whether pure-play, lowest-common-denominator streaming is a long-term economic strategy.
One difficulty went unmentioned in Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ Tuesday mea culpa, but was raised by Disney’s departing chairman a few weeks previously. Bob Iger referred to rivals who don’t need to generate money from streaming, as if ashamed to say so. “There is no doubt that deep-pocketed technological giants, such as Apple and Amazon, are in those industries for other reasons. I don’t want to claim that their [streaming affiliates] are loss-leader businesses, but they are.”
He did, however, want to imply that they are loss leaders. And the difficulty is becoming more obvious in the next major fight over sports rights. According to reports, Apple and Amazon are the frontrunners for DirecTV’s all-encompassing NFL Sunday Ticket subscription, which is a long-ball bid for audience share. Apple just began streaming Friday night baseball, with advertising between between innings, defying any expectations that Tim Cook would instead speed up the game. Since 2017, Amazon has been broadcasting Thursday night NFL games, giving them complete control over ad inventory.
From theme parks and retail to ad-supported cable, streaming, and broadcast TV networks, Mr. Iger’s Disney is a multifaceted entertainment behemoth with multiple revenue streams that Netflix lacks.
Gloomy news for Netflix is also gloomy news for the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery, created when AT&T unwound its short-lived Time Warner merger, whose prized asset was the streaming flagship HBO Max. Under Ma Bell, when it could be bundled with broadband or wireless service, HBO Max at least had a strategy for one of streaming’s killer puzzles, how to reduce churn, or the headache of subscribers jumping off the service after watching the current hit show.
Netflix was always going to be plagued by turnover because of its sole concentration on streaming subscriptions. As a result, executives overspent on material in the hopes of producing a consistent stream of compelling successes. Netflix has merely said that it would try harder not to waste its $20 billion yearly programming budget on so many terrible shows, notwithstanding this week’s stock market meltdown.
Compare this to an Apple or Amazon, or AT&T before it unloaded its Warner properties, which use streaming as a sweetener for their much larger businesses, allowing them to be more selective and economical in their content investments and (let’s face it) not create so much algorithmic dreck like “Red Notice.”
That leads us to Netflix’s major concession on Tuesday. Mr. Hastings startled the world by announcing that the firm may explore introducing an ad-supported version of its service in the hopes of reviving membership growth and helping to pay its massive content expenditure, after ignoring the concept for a decade.
Mr. Hastings’ capitulation on commercials is likely to be the first of many surrenders on aspects of the Netflix brand that have made it a customer favorite. Password sharing will be eliminated. New season binge-watching will have to go, as seen by the network’s choice to split the newest season of “Ozark” into two portions, released months apart. Lowball initial deals, discounts, bundling, and other sorts of marketing gimmickry that are common in less enlightened businesses will very certainly become the standard. Is a Netflix-branded credit card a long way off?
When a service with integrity—a phrase I use lightly to denote completeness, simplicity, straightforwardness, and a lack of dishonesty in its customer proposition—resorts to gimmicks, it’s important to remember that A) it’s not alone: Consider how cable TV employed bait-and-switch offers, hidden fees, and cancellation barriers to shore up its income model after the initial and unqualified gift of excellent reception plus a plethora of additional channels became second nature to customers.
And B) it implies a persistent deterioration of the company’s image and reputation among consumers. It means becoming just another tainted, conflicted brand that customers scoff at, even if they feel obliged to buy it. Is Netflix up to the task?
The actor earned a standing ovation from the Hollywood crowd only moments after assaulting Chris Rock on stage. Zuma Press/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters/Reuters Mark Kelly’s composite
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
The print issue of the April 23, 2022, was published.
