March 28, 2024

Netflix Loses U.S. Subscribers as Price Increases Take a Toll

Globally, Netflix is most likely the largest streaming business, with more than 151 million subscribers. Its future growth will largely come outside the United States, with India representing its best opportunity. Netflix has given up on entering the Chinese market after difficulties with regulators there.

The company’s dominance has prompted more established media giants to embark on streaming services of their own. ATT, which acquired HBO and Turner Broadcasting as part of its $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner last year, announced plans this month for a streaming service — HBO Max — that will start next year.

The Walt Disney Company will also go big on streaming, with plans to fill an expansive new streaming product, Disney Plus, with franchises like “The Avengers” and “Star Wars.” It will also offer the many television shows and films it picked up when it bought the bulk of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox entertainment empire for $71.3 billion in a deal that closed in March.

Adding to the competition, Apple is shifting away from its focus on hardware to spend more than $1 billion on Hollywood talent as it enters into the entertainment business with Apple TV Plus. That streaming service, with new content from a roster of talent that includes Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Reese Witherspoon, is scheduled for a fall debut.

“It’s not a zero-sum competition,” Mr. Hastings said on Wednesday. “People will subscribe to multiple shows. I’d wager that most Netflix employees are HBO subscribers.”

As part of its effort to ramp up its original offerings last year, Netflix signed Ryan Murphy, the prolific producer behind “Glee” and the anthology series “American Crime Story,” to a five-year deal said to be worth nearly $300 million. After wooing him away from 21st Century Fox, the company signed another name producer, Shonda Rhimes, the creator of ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” giving her a nine-figure deal.

Netflix released its second-quarter report a little more than a week after the news that it would lose the North American rights to “Friends,” the NBC sitcom that has had a highly remunerative afterlife in syndication and online.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/17/business/media/netflix-earnings-subscribers.html?emc=rss&partner=rss

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