Netflix shed almost 1 million subscribers during the spring amid tougher competition and soaring inflation that’s squeezing household budgets, heightening the urgency behind the video streaming service’s effort to launch a cheaper option with commercial interruptions.
The April-June contraction of 970,000 accounts, announced as part of Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report, is by far the largest quarterly subscriber loss in the company’s 25-year history, the AP reported.
It could have been far worse, though, considering Netflix management released an April forecast calling for a loss of 2 million subscribers during the second quarter.
Netflix was probably spared from deeper losses by the ongoing popularity of “Stranger Things,” it’s science fiction/horror series that debuted in 2016.
Following the release of the series’ fourth season in late May, Netflix said, viewers watched a total of 1.3 billion hours of it over the next four weeks, more than any other English-language series in the service’s history.
The less severe loss in subscribers, combined with an outlook calling for a return to growth in the July-September period, helped lift Netflix’s battered stock by 7% in extended trading after the numbers came out.
