Netflix loses almost a million subscribers

After enjoying a long reign as the king of streaming, Netflix faces a tough fight to keep its crown, reports BBC.

Between April and July, Netflix lost over 1 million customers as the rate of service cancellations increased. Yet it was less than the streaming juggernaut had anticipated.

Regarding the prevention of subscriptions declining further the firm’s chief executive, Reed Hastings, said: “If there was a single thing, we might say ‘Stranger Things.’”

The new season of ‘Stranger Things’, has been a success and seems like it helped to stop the keep the Netflix customers.

The company reported its first subscriber loss since 2011 in April, news that was followed by hundreds of job cuts and a sharp drop in its share price. Rivals are challenging its dominance, while price hikes have taken a toll.

The subscriber losses reported on Tuesday were the biggest in the firm’s history, with the US and Canada home to the highest number of cancellations in the quarter, followed by Europe.

Guy Bisson, executive director at Ampere Analysis, said it was “inevitable” that Netflix would start to see its grip on the market loosen.

“When you’re the leader, there’s only one direction to go, especially when a large amount of competition launches, which is what Netflix has seen in the last couple of years,” he said. Netflix is also facing competition from Apple TV, HBO Max, Amazon Prime and Disney+.

Netflix was once the disruptor, making video rental stores like Blockbuster redundant. But the disruptor is fast becoming the disrupted.