During the three-month period ending June 30, Netflix reported a loss of only 970,000 subscribers. Last quarter, the company had a weak outlook for the second quarter and predicted a net loss of two million subscribers. While today’s results beat the projection, it is still the largest quarterly loss in the company’s history.
The company reported a total of 220.67 million subscribers and said it expects to add one million in the third quarter.
Netflix has spent a couple of months adjusting its business strategy to prepare for the challenges it expects to face. The company laid off around 450 employees, announced a cheaper ad-supported subscription plan with a new partnership with Microsoft and put its foot down on password sharing.
Today, Netflix announced in its letter to shareholders that it will launch the ad-supported tier in the early part of 2023. Also, next year will see the official rollout of the paid sharing offering.
Netflix announced yesterday it is testing an “add a home” feature that will charge an extra $3 to share accounts with other households.
If you’ve been following our streaming coverage, then you know that Netflix is having a horrible year. In April, the company reported that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 — the first big loss in over a decade.
This year, Netflix’s stock was on a decline of approximately 70%. The market valuation has decreased from $300 billion to under $90 billion in less than a year. After the company reported it lost fewer subscribers than anticipated, Netflix shares increased 8%.
In addition to its shortcomings, the streamer received fewer Emmy nominations this month than HBO and HBO Max, even though it featured more programming. HBO picked up 140 nominations to Netflix’s 105, a number that emphasizes the downfall in quality entertainment for the streaming giant.
Season four of Stranger Things was a big hit amongst subscribers as the company touted it was the most streamed English-language show in its history with 1.3 billion hours viewed.
Netflix is betting on a more robust slate of content to accelerate growth. The new season of The Crown and the whopping $200 million budgeted action movie The Gray Man, starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans, will appear on the platform soon. The company also revealed a new Squid Game reality game show that will feature the biggest cash prize and largest cast in reality TV history.
On the gaming front, Netflix released the mobile game Into the Breach today. The new title is great for pocket gamers that enjoy strategy games with enemies, battles, and more.
The streaming service currently has more than 22 games available and plans to have 50 titles by the end of 2022, including ones tied to Netflix’s popular TV shows The Queen’s Gambit, Shadow and Bone and Too Hot to Handle.