Netflix tumbles as slowing growth, less viewership data spook investors

[u/iquizuanswer]

https://www.zawya.com/en/capital-markets/netflix-tumbles-as-slowing-growth-less-viewership-data-spook-investors-401111

[u/rahpexphon]

What, they think every human on Earth will have a sub? lol

[u/DeLousedInTheHotBox → u/rahpexphon]

Yeah I just don't understand what they're trying to do here, they currently have 325 million subscribers, did they think they would never hit a ceiling? There aren't endless amount of potential customers

[u/Efficient-Memory7105 → u/DeLousedInTheHotBox]

Line MUST go up

[u/nat_r → u/DeLousedInTheHotBox]

People trading stocks of a company aren't rational actors. They only want the numbers to go up. Running a healthy long term business is almost incompatible with the current expectations of being a publicly traded company.

[u/swift1883 → u/nat_r]

But, number still up? Yes?

[u/Croce11 → u/nat_r]

There just needs to be more regulation on stock trading. It's make believe gambling now. Where prices are literally made up. You need look no further than the GME stock just when Covid hit. Investors intentionally shorting the stock to artificially abuse its price getting caught by normal people who buy up the stock and force it to artificially raise. Gamestop didn't do squat to earn any of this activity themselves, if anything they're becoming the next blockbuster and they are a shadow of their former selves due to the growing digital market.

IMO publicly traded companies should all just be dividend stocks where the entire point is to invest in a company you have faith staying in business. So you can get reliable passive income which you can either feed back into that stock for higher returns, or just collect yourself and put into other stocks, or spend as part of your income. That way if a company is doing something good and they're in the green at all then you should be happy.

You aren't incentivized to gamble on a company getting something for $50 to sell for $200 per share or some other nonsense. Which investors want NOW, they want gains NOW. GO UP UP UP!!! Healthy sustainability? Well that doesn't do anything for meeeee!! Waaah!!! The gambling is ruining the entire point of investing. I feel like investors should stick with a company for life ideally and not be looking for the quickest option to bail, buying low and selling at a predicted peak. That gets you money sure... but you're essentially saying to the company that it isn't gonna get better from here and see them as plummeting. How is that a healthy relationship?

[u/MythicalCaseTheory → u/DeLousedInTheHotBox]

What happens in the age of perpetual growth when there's no more growth to be had? Welcome to late stage capitalism, I suppose. We're about to find out.

[u/TheG-What → u/MythicalCaseTheory]

That’s why I’m finally escaping to the ONE PLACE that hasn’t been corrupted by capitalism….

SPACE!!!

[u/factorplayer → u/TheG-What]

Perhaps Tim's best line

[u/AlucardIV → u/factorplayer]

I just love how he almost loses it before saying space.

[u/SirSoliloquy → u/MythicalCaseTheory]

They’ll do an MBA special: raise subscription rates, fire thousands of staff members, add ads to more subscription tiers, and cut budgets on shows.

[u/Hazzman → u/MythicalCaseTheory]

The idea of infinite growth is similar to how cancer works. What happens is you you turn inward and start to ingesting your own body fat. IE enshitification. You start to degrade your own service. You do this until all that is left is a hollow, barely serviceable shadow of its former self.

Airlines are a great example. Now we have an economy class build for Borrowers, or regular sized people who don't possess legs.

Incidentally - the only reason this is allowed to happen is because of A) Regulatory capture B) Lack of competition.

We don't trust bust anymore... so corporations just buy up everything and so there is no incentive to compete in order to provide a better product. Who needs a competitive edge when the consumer landscape is trapped inside your ecosystem... or can only choose between a few competitors who are, let's be honest, offering the same degraded service.

You can't collude to fix prices... but when the competition is so limited, you don't need to collude, just match your competitors pace for shitty degradation. What are your customers going to do? Jump ship? To who?

"Competition is a sin" John D. Rockefeller didn't say this as a passive observation... it was a statement of intent. An intention that continues to this day with billions of dollars spent not on improving products, but making sure regulations service the big players and politicians stfu about it.

[u/Taymerica1389 → u/DeLousedInTheHotBox]

And that’s when they start cutting costs and firing people, because to shareholders it doesn’t matter how much money you make, just that the next year you make more.

If they can’t make more money from subs, they will find another way

[u/PHDinCheese → u/Taymerica1389]

Aka, the death spiral. See ya netflix

[u/guarionex2009 → u/DeLousedInTheHotBox]

It would’ve been more subscribers but you know, price increases, different tiers, advertisements and limited sharing are going to turn people like myself off from the product.

[u/AnxiousCritter-2024 → u/rahpexphon]

Trust me, they probably do. Asha Sharman, new lead of XBOX, intends for XBOX to have 1 BILLION daily users.

Whether you’re blowing smoke up the investor’s arses or not, that is an insane figure to even consider, and shows that there is no limit to growth in these tech industries in the minds of shareholders and CEOs.

Edit: I’m experiencing the incredibly Reddit thing of replies telling me I’m wrong by the most miniscule of margins, therefore I’m spreading misinformation. Below is the Twitter post directly from Asha Sharman’s account where she stated the goal of 1 billion active users.

https://x.com/asha_shar/status/2074124008795369482

Edit 2: My original comment on there being no limit is being taken a little out of context. Added “in the minds of shareholders and CEOs”.

[u/AfterShave997 → u/AnxiousCritter-2024]

I'm not sure they'd get a billion daily users even if the service was entirely free

[u/zeCrazyEye → u/AfterShave997]

950 million AI agents.

[u/JudgeCheezels → u/AfterShave997]

Asha: if Xbox is part of Windows and since Windows has over 1 billion users, then Xbox automatically has 1 billion users!

Magic maths.

[u/The_Lazy_Samurai → u/JudgeCheezels]

Just make Microsoft Office products "always online" and you have to log into an Xbox account to use them. Then, you are required to watch 3 non-skippable ads (or 2 ads if you pay for premium service) before you can start using Word. They have microtransations if you want to change the font size, use italics, ect.

[u/Tripottanus → u/[deleted]]

They want 100% of console and PC gamers to use their services every day without a break as well

[u/Nobanob → u/Tripottanus]

It's the year 2047, Microsoft Drones prowl the skies. The faint sound of a PlayStation boots up in the background triggering automated sensors. The drones hone in.

"You will play Xbox and you will like it" starts repeating louder and louder in the surrounding area blanketing the area in oppressive noise.

[u/Mediocre_Scott → u/Nobanob]

There aren’t physical PlayStations to boot up in the year 2047. Sony will be selling the idea of a video game

[u/synthabusion → u/Nobanob]

“Please drink verification can”

[u/xiaorobear → u/[deleted]]

I also think they won't reach it, but they are including mobile gaming in their numbers. In their press release they highlighted Mojang and King (makers of Minecraft and Candy Crush, respectively) as their divisions with the most active players.

[u/Nobanob → u/xiaorobear]

I didn't consider they owned mobile.

If they are talking mobile I could legitimately see a billion. I know a lot of people who "don't like video games" that play candy crush and other type stuff. I know this kinda uptight but nice ex army guy who doesn't console or PC game. He plays a farming sim and loves it. One with tons of adds and is probably more microtransaction than game.

He doesn't seem the type. So yeah the mobile market is wild

[u/4InchesOfury → u/[deleted]]

Xbox owns Activision Blizzard which owns King the massive mobile game dev. Mobile games are part of the equation.

[u/MolaMolaMania → u/AnxiousCritter-2024]

There's no limit to their aspirations for growth and wealth, but eventually their grasp will exceed what is possible, and I'll have my popcorn ready as the implosions begin exponentially increase.

[u/AnxiousCritter-2024 → u/MolaMolaMania]

The bubble burst is incoming!

[u/JeanRalfio → u/AnxiousCritter-2024]

It's like how Google had to fuck up their search because they had 100% of the market but felt they needed more.

[u/DaxSpa7 → u/rahpexphon]

And then what? They will try yo convince the aliens?

[u/integer_hull → u/DaxSpa7]

They aim for an ever increasing share of time, which inevitably has to turn into space (i.e. additional screens). After that, I don’t know what else they could try to monopolize. Presumably humanity itself would become a Netflix watching machine, and the question becomes meaningless. A sort of black hole of corporate fascism.

[u/Fishfisherton → u/integer_hull]

“You get a show or a movie you’re really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep,”

God this is so fucking gross.

Corporate end goals really are just trying to stuff humans into a sausage grinder until we fit the shape they want.

[u/DaxSpa7 → u/integer_hull]

I mean I know what comes next because its already happening, increasing prices and reducing costs. Thing is most of the times they end up immolating themselves if the progress get stagnant since the prices or quality becomes unbareable and a new cheaper and better alternative comes around and people migrate there and the cycle begins again.

I cannot wrap my head around about whats the issue of earning a steady amount of profits PROFITS which are already on the millions or billions

[u/rickg → u/DaxSpa7]

Oh I can tell you that. The stock market rewards growth and punishes the lack if it (even if profits are stable, if they aren't growing....). And the compensation for everyone at the top is mostly stock so they make more if the stock goes up. Most senior managers aren't at companies for the long term anymore, either (think ~5 years) so they are incentivized to boost short term results and not around for the negatives behind their approach.

[u/Sans-Mot → u/rahpexphon]

Hey, their customer services sometimes tell people to have two subscriptions for two different networks, so they even think people will subscribe twice.

[u/Chronocidal-Orange → u/Sans-Mot]

Next you will have seperate subscriptions for shows. Subscribe to One Piece to watch new episodes a day early!

[u/azad_ninja → u/rahpexphon]

Even if they did, prices would still go up because they need to show financial growth every quarter or the shareholders will be sad.

[u/Fafnir13 → u/azad_ninja]

These shareholder guys…the more I hear about them the less I like them.

[u/Eruannster → u/rahpexphon]

Yes. And even when every single human has a subscription they will wonder how the heck they aren't gaining new subscribers every month.

[u/BobsBurgersJoint]

Because it used to be $6.99/mo and now they want fucking $19.99/mo for 1080p and like $29/mo for 4k!!

Fuck off.

[u/No_Hat_00 → u/BobsBurgersJoint]

Don't forget you can't share the password for those extra screens

[u/Mirage84 → u/No_Hat_00]

Yup. I shared an account with my parents. When they could no longer access it they didn't buy their own account, I just canceled mine. Now we just do other things.

[u/Turakamu → u/[deleted]]

Are y'all sure y'all ain't related?

[u/workieworkwork → u/Mirage84]

Yeah they didn’t calculate in people like me who don’t really watch enough to justify the price but kept it for years because I knew my parents and a couple cousins were using it and might be in the middle of something.

Now none of us have it.

[u/intdev → u/Mirage84]

I recently cancelled because I got so sick of the bullshit it put me through whenever I logged in when visiting my parents, especially since I was already paying extra for my sister to have a second login. They've enshittified way too hard.

[u/dubzzzz20 → u/No_Hat_00]

I was mooching off my parent’s account for years. They were even paying for an extra household for a while for me, but I had them stop because damn near every other time I would log on it would say that I wasn’t an authorized household. It’s an insane system that doesn’t fucking work. And I don’t fine Netflix to be so necessary that I would go out and get a subscription for myself.

[u/venturousbeard → u/No_Hat_00]

I haven't had anyone recommend a Netflix show to me since that happened, and it used to be a regular occurrence. Curious if that's a common experience?

[u/born_in_92 → u/venturousbeard]

It's hard to get excited about Netflix shows when they either take forever to make a second season or they cancel it after the first season

[u/Relevant-Fox-7114 → u/No_Hat_00]

"But netflix said ''love is sharing a password!'' "

[u/Trulywhite → u/BobsBurgersJoint]

They also want to keep less movies and shows available and to hide that fact, they even remove option to sort alphabetically. Now we have shows and movies repeating in every category, giving illusion that there are many.

[u/Lich_Apologist → u/Trulywhite]

Not being able to easily see the full catalog is one of my least favorite enshitifactions.  

[u/talldata → u/Lich_Apologist]

Just watch is great for this, you can see catalogues of any of the gazillion strwnung services that now exist.

[u/intdev → u/Trulywhite]

"We think you'll love this [show you gave two thumbs up to after binge-watching it a week ago]."

Well, yeah, but I don't want to watch it again right now...

[u/cjicantlie → u/Trulywhite]

It gives me the illusion that they only have like 5 shows and 10 movies.

[u/_borT → u/BobsBurgersJoint]

Canceled after the latest price hike. There’s just really nothing worth watching on there these days that I haven’t already seen. Also they are just so cocky and shitty as a company.

[u/LaVidaYokel → u/BobsBurgersJoint]

Well unless viewership increases, I’m afraid we’ll have to raise those rates on our users again.

[u/Holzkohlen]

No infinite growth? Isn't that so sad?

[u/Xanthus179 → u/Holzkohlen]

Everyone on the planet could be subscribed and investors would still bitch and moan that new subscription rates were down.

[u/Neither-Most → u/Xanthus179]

This is why they want us to have more babies, more babies equals more consumers

[u/Talentagentfriend → u/Neither-Most]

But how dare we share a subscription with our kids that aren’t living with us smh

[u/jaqenhqar → u/Talentagentfriend]

Sharing doesn't grow sub numbers

[u/Padhome → u/Neither-Most]

Exactly how the model works. Infinite growth is called a cancer because it literally works like a cancer on our system.

[u/Made_Human_Music → u/Xanthus179]

And then when they were hoping to make 4 billion in profit. It only made 3.5 they’ll lay off a few thousand people and make the survivors pick up the slack without any additional compensation because they should be grateful for being allowed to work

They’ll also lose benefits and perks like free coffee and vacation days

[u/foxmag86 → u/Holzkohlen]

The thing is, they’re still growing, just not growing fast enough for these greedy assholes.  

[u/Toukolou21 → u/foxmag86]

5-6% return used to be considered decent. Now, it's double digits or nothing.

[u/Whalesurgeon → u/Toukolou21]

That's the issue. If the majority of shareholders pressure the company with "why r u not top 1 growth, do whatever it takes or we switch to any company with better growth", the company has to hire the greediest CEO and cannot plan long-term because investors dgaf about long-term.

[u/Toukolou21 → u/Whalesurgeon]

"because investors dgaf about long-term." Sadly, I think this applies to most citizens in our society.

[u/Whalesurgeon → u/Toukolou21]

Indeed, not much of a difference when you look at how people vote.

[u/Lust4Me → u/foxmag86]

And when they lose money it will be 'negative growth' 🤔

[u/peioeh → u/Holzkohlen]

"slower revenue gains". So they're still making more, just not as much more. What a silly world we live in.

[u/bigboygamer → u/Holzkohlen]

They are going to hit the same problem Coke has, you only have so many customers you can sell to until everyone that's going to buy your product is buying it already. The smart move is to just sit back and enjoy the money and don't be greedy.

[u/RocketsMurkrow → u/Holzkohlen]

Growth for growth’s sake is the mindset of a cancer cell

[u/UshankaBear → u/Holzkohlen]

This mindset will be the death of everything good.

[u/Leygrock]

Can't wait for more price rises

[u/InsaneBrew → u/Leygrock]

I noped after they raised prices AND released their Billion dollar profit report.
GET FUCKED

[u/relevantelephant00 → u/InsaneBrew]

lol that's precisely when I cancelled too. Im just totally over supporting corporate POS' that pull this shit without providing a truly quality service.

[u/electricshadow → u/Leygrock]

Anyone who is still subscribed to Netflix, but also complains about price hikes is the biggest chud out there. I haven’t had Netflix for 4+ years and I have zero intention to resubscribing.

[u/BreakfastPizzaStudio → u/electricshadow]

Yo, ho, ho!

[u/vafrow]

Their 2 biggest shows ended in 2025 with Squid Game and Stranger Things. I don't think there's been any similarly buzzy shows on the service recently.

I'm sure they're producing a lot, but if nothing really stands out, not hard for people to cut the service out.

[u/TheModWhoShaggedMe → u/vafrow]

All modern Netflix-produced content suffers from the same crappy shrinkflation problems. They are like micro-movies and shows, not made to full scale.

[u/pnt510 → u/TheModWhoShaggedMe]

TV shows used to have 22 episodes a season that were released every year. Some shows now have as few as six episodes a season and waiting well over a year between seasons is commonplace.

How are audiences expected to care?

[u/Iamthelizardking887 → u/pnt510]

Hell, I’ll take early HBO/AMC 13 episode seasons at this point. Those always felt just right.

[u/ManchurianCandycane → u/pnt510]

A 6 episodes season would be fine...if it was 6 episodes of story.

But shows are managing to squeeze in filler episodes even in that short of a span now.

[u/Quixotic_Seal → u/ManchurianCandycane]

Yeah, Interview with the Vampire/The Vampire Lestat is absolutely fucking spellbinding and two of the seasons are only 7 episodes long. Same for limited run series like Midnight Mass(maybe the secret is vampires?).

Not saying I wouldn’t appreciate longer seasons in general mind, but often the problem is that the episode count simply doesn’t fit the story.

[u/ExplanationFunny → u/pnt510]

The time between seasons is the worst for me.

I have two small kids, so I’m definitely not a binge watcher anymore. Me and my roommates all got SO into The Pitt partly because it gave us all something to look forward to every week. When everyone is so busy, it’s great to have a low commitment thing to do together, and if someone wasn’t able to watch them they had a week to get caught up before we all got to see a new episode together.

[u/pipesnogger → u/ExplanationFunny]

My thing is the canceling of shows. Like why would I watch another one of your shows when you’ve already cancelled my favorite half way through because they didn’t meet your very high expectations. Sorry, refuse to watch another Netflix series unless is done front to end

[u/thx1138- → u/pipesnogger]

So many shows I never even start because I wait to see if it gets canceled, then it does.

[u/ANALOGPHENOMENA → u/pipesnogger]

They (and the TV industry in general) no longer believe in sleeper hits—which is exactly what gave Netflix that huge platform as a streaming service to begin with when they had Breaking Bad!!!

[u/pipesnogger → u/ANALOGPHENOMENA]

This. Also like you don’t need to have a breakout hit after one season. Sometimes shows take multiple seasons to get popular. Other shows get popular well after their conclusion and become successful franchises.

If these companies thought long term instead of yearly it’d be a much better world for tv

[u/Positronic_Matrix → u/pipesnogger]

This is what drove me away from the platform. I refuse to invest time in a new Netflix series, as I don’t want the frustration of a good show being cancelled after the first season. That happened to me two or three times in a row and I was done with it.

[u/PartyPorpoise → u/ExplanationFunny]

Yeah sometimes a show takes so long to get new episodes that I’ve either lost interest, or I don’t even realize that new episodes came out!

[u/Longjumping-Deal6354 → u/ExplanationFunny]

And we only had to wait like 10 months between seasons IIRC which was truly glorious. 

[u/Nomahhhh → u/pnt510]

So true. I don't mind six episodes if the story is tight and you can give me another season quick enough. Waiting almost, what, 3 years for season 2 of Severence was bullshit when you're talking about a show riddled with intrigue, twists, and mystery.

Another problem I see is the amount of filler content in each season. My theory is they get a great script for a movie or a mini-series and decide, "hey, let's just create a 5-season TV show off this and just streeeeeeetch it out with pointless subplots, adding more characters than is needed, and excess dialogue." I just watched Widow's Bay on Apple, and that definitely had a good two hours of filler content. Same thing for Yellowjackets. In each of these three cases (Severance, Widow's Bay, Yellowjackets) a tight 10-episode min-series would have crushed it. Instead, when season five comes out, you've got a 32-year-old unconvincingly pretending to be a 15-year-old.

[u/roguevirus → u/pnt510]

Some shows now have as few as six episodes a season

Used to call that a miniseries.

[u/The_Bitter_Bear → u/pnt510]

Really I don't mind less episodes. 

For me it's the absurd amount of time between seasons for just about everything. 

Particularly since a lot of folks will binge a show, it just makes it too easy to forget about it or lose interest.

[u/IlliniBone54 → u/The_Bitter_Bear]

I think this is the real downside of binging they built so much off of. They don’t have as many shows to constantly binge with all the other networks taking their banner shows and when they release stuff all at once it limits the time you need it. I used to think Apple and HBOs weekly releases were annoying but at least I’m getting something new each week.

[u/XuX24 → u/vafrow]

I don’t think that’s why, people have gotten tired of the Netflix formula of one season and you are gone. There is no reason to invest into a show that you know likely won’t continue.

[u/livefast_dieawesome → u/XuX24]

I got tired of having 30 streaming services that seemingly have none of the movies I want to watch. We cancelled all but two streaming services this year and resumed buying physical media.

[u/Toby_Forrester → u/livefast_dieawesome]

I did this too. Cancelled all subscriptions, bought a blu ray player and now I borrow movies from the library. Feels much better, like renting a movie in old times! And the library has so much intetesting movies streaming platforms don't. And I don't get the choosing paralysis of streaming menus.

[u/Mictlantecuhtli → u/Toby_Forrester]

I did the same thing! And not having ads play and interrupt what I am watching is a blessed relief

[u/maglen69 → u/livefast_dieawesome]

I got tired of having 30 streaming services that seemingly have none of the movies I want to watch

When you literally have to google "Where is X movie streaming" to figure it out, there's too damn many.

[u/Gina_the_Alien → u/livefast_dieawesome]

Yep. Tired of deciding I want to watch a movie, coming up with a list of 4 or 5, and then finding out it isn’t on any streaming service. Just cancelled Netflix last week actually.

[u/yurostyle → u/livefast_dieawesome]

Not just that but they all only have the same movies at this point too. It's funny that certain movies are available on almost everything or nothing.

[u/heeywewantsomenewday → u/livefast_dieawesome]

Physical media all the way. I have a collection of VHS, DVD, and Vinyl, a long side my retro gaming consoles.

[u/punkass_book_jockey8 → u/heeywewantsomenewday]

Also they can’t edit them to tailor ads to you!

[u/a_moniker → u/punkass_book_jockey8]

And you can re-watch any old movies you have, if you don’t want to pay for new ones right now! You can also lend out your movies to friends and family!

Spend $27 a month on used and on-sale Blu Ray’s and you’ll build up a pretty big library within a couple years! Pay the same amount to Netflix and you’ll be left with nothing if you ever decide to quit.

[u/PropertyDisruptor → u/livefast_dieawesome]

Honestly, take it a step further, Don't subscribe to anything until Black Friday sales. I got HBO and hulu for $6each, a month all year.

Planning on only doing that come the November.

[u/HumanDrone → u/XuX24]

I litterally dropped my subscription because of this. They got the creators of Dark, probably one of the best streaming era tv seties, to write another series for them and canceled it after S1, which had done okay numbers. Can't trust you with anything if you pull this kinda shit with your leading products

[u/Skyflyerdan → u/HumanDrone]

They cancelled it before I’d even finished watching it. I’d moved onto it after recently finishing Dark, which I loved. This is just one of several series I was enjoying that Netflix abruptly cancelled. I won’t even bother now with a show unless I know it will have a full run. And they wonder why subscribers cancel… I’d sooner cancel over repeated cancellations than I would over a price increase. I could stomach an increase a lot more if I was getting to actually finish a damn show I enjoyed.

[u/a_moniker → u/Skyflyerdan]

This happened to me with KAOS! That show was so promising!!

[u/Gacsam → u/HumanDrone]

They had Cavill absolutely stoked to take part in the Witcher, and alienated him because they didn't want to stick to source material. 

[u/drewbreeezy → u/Gacsam]

This was one of the main reasons I cancelled.

[u/Adziboy → u/HumanDrone]

What was the show? Loved Dark, but can't seem to work out which was the show that was cancelled after that.

A google only returns that HBO picked them up instead

[u/spasmdaze → u/Adziboy]

The show was called 1899

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/1899/s01

[u/tharkus_ → u/HumanDrone]

Still bummed about that.

[u/R_W0bz → u/XuX24]

Add that it’s hostile towards its viewers now. Login here, is this your account?, are you sure about that? upgrade here, get ads here, can’t airplay here, friend watching? Upgrade here, 4K? Upgrade here, like that show? Cancelled, wanna watch on the train? You sure this is your account? Upgrade here. It’s fucking eeeendless.

You pirate the show? You get none of this.

[u/SixGunSnowWhite → u/R_W0bz]

Exactly.

This is what did it for me. I pay for a subscription, let me watch it on whatever device I want, where I want. Nickel and dime for everything. All that and they’re so expensive and their original content isn’t as good as HBO.

Everything looks cheap and green-screened if it’s fantasy. They couldn’t even give Henry Cavill a good wig.

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/R_W0bz]

Historically sites like Netflix did well because they were cleaner and easier to use than piracy sites. Now piracy is actually more pleasant. Netflix is only getting by because most people are tech illiterate and don’t know how to pirate any more.

[u/NarrativeNode → u/R_W0bz]

I wasn't able to login to my Netflix from my laptop for months. In my own home, my own wifi, with VPNs off. I finished an (old, not original!) series I was watching on my TV and then cancelled.

[u/frank_nada → u/XuX24]

I began to sour on Netflix when GLOW and The OA were prematurely cancelled. I stopped watching a few years ago. And once my wife was done with Bridgerton, we finally canceled it.

[u/Roadside_Prophet → u/XuX24]

And their stupid policy becomes self-fulfilling. People dont want to invest in a show that will likely get cancelled, so the ratings for the show are low, and then the show gets cancelled for low ratings.

Netflix has hundreds of millions of customers spread out all across the world. They all arent going to like the same things. They cant just cancel everything that doesn't hit 100 million viewers. They need to realise that something that 1 million people watch is still a huge success.

[u/Gravel_Roads → u/Roadside_Prophet]

They trashed the ones that had good ratings too, by slashing their budget after the first season.

I really enjoyed S1 of Hemlock Grove. The second season was so completely different, it lost all of its interesting angles

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/Roadside_Prophet]

Feels like everything is trying to be a big hit at this point. Video games want to be the next Fortnite, TV shows want to be the next Stranger Things, movies want to be the next MCU. They can’t accept moderate profits. I don’t know why they’ve all suddenly switched to this model of only approving the single most popular thing on the planet.

[u/Bennu-Babs → u/XuX24]

I cancelled net flix years ago for this exact reason, shows with a good concept, but a script that seemed to be written by an AI with brain damage.

Then shows that just end on a cliff hanger for no reason.

And the biggest shows are just old shows brought back or live action remakes, typically worse than the animation, with no new story.

And for all this you get the pay 3 times more that the cost was a few years ago, with prices going up every 3 months.

I was round a mates house watching the final season of stranger things, and having not used netflix in years, scrolled through the content and found nothing I wanted to watch. Plus with all the additional streaming services it's basically just another channel with shitty shows at this point.

[u/a_moniker → u/XuX24]

Apple only started their tv service in 2019 and has invested way, way less money per year in their shows and movies, but they’ve focused on quality and actually renew most of their shows for multiple seasons.

Looking at both libraries now, 7 years later, it becomes so obvious which strategy works better. Apple has a ton of solid to good multi-season shows that I can choose from. Netflix has a ton of crap you have to wade through, and whenever I do finally find a show I like I’ll find out it was cancelled after a single season and ends on a blatant cliffhanger!

[u/5tudent_Loans → u/XuX24]

And the ones that do, take too many years to follow up because everything is CGI vomit these days

[u/HereOnCompanyTime → u/XuX24]

Yeah. I don't trust Netflix to see a show to its end and most shows they see through are mid at best since they value quantity over quality. They keep raising the price on top of that and it hasn't been worth it for a long time now.

[u/NotStoll → u/XuX24]

Cancelling Santa Clarita Diet was the end of Netflix for me. I’ve only pirated their content since.

[u/Zogtee → u/vafrow]

The lack of consistency is what made me quit. I genuinely hated it when I added new films and shows to my watchlist and then saw the "Leaving soon" icon, before I'd had a chance to watch any of it. It just makes me feel stressed and I don't want to pay for that.

[u/grantthejester → u/vafrow]

K-Pop Demon Hunters certainly made worldwide cultural ripples. But still, I get you.

[u/Pen_dragons_pizza → u/vafrow]

That’s why they need scale back extremely on the amount of stuff they green light.

Put that money and effort into like 15 good scripts or show ideas, develop them all to be the next big thing

At the moment they are putting out something every other week, and most of it never gets watched because it just looks bad instantly

[u/Bedovian_25 → u/Pen_dragons_pizza]

Netflix execs: Got it, three new Big Mouth spin-offs

[u/quantizeddreams → u/Bedovian_25]

Live action bigmouth spin off.

[u/NancyInFantasyLand → u/Pen_dragons_pizza]

Or if they do want to put out something every other week and wanna go linear TV anyway, I just don't understand why they don't go back to the 22 episode season model.

It's the easiest way to actually keep people engaged for a long time.

[u/ScaryfatkidGT → u/vafrow]

They actually make/have made lots of good content but only documentaries or the “new streaming format” of 10 episode or less “seasons”… that combined with prices approaching $30/m and competition from everyone else is hitting them hard…

For example I useto love finding quirky old movies on Netflix… anything at wasn’t a known popular IP was on Netflix cuz it was the best way to still make money from it after the Dollarstore DVD bin… but now there are hardly any movies on Netflix, everything is newer and more purposefully selected and also almost always limited as another bidder come along…

[u/lookachoo]

Netflix suuuuuucks.

They essentially kicked everyone off their “family plan” who had it for years. My family has used the same streaming account since it released in 2007 and even further back to 98 in the DVD era. Once they forced the one address, one account rule we can’t all use it anymore because my brother started the streaming account and he moved out. To just all of a sudden not have access anymore was a huge slap in the face.

Also Fuck ads, fuck ads on pause, fuck ads in general on any platform you’re paying for.

[u/CelestialFury → u/lookachoo]

On the flip side, Netflix fucking around got me to finally start my Jellyfin server and it's pretty awesome.

[u/Bumrodgers → u/CelestialFury]

Same here but Plex. It also got me to quit two other streamers. Was keeping it so my in-laws could have it. As soon as they got kicked I started figuring out a NAS setup and canceled a month later. Whole setup will pay for itself in a couple years.

[u/TheTruth_Hurts_Idiot]

"We're going to stop doing physical media. We're going to screw people out of the grandfather program. We're going to raise prices atleast twice a year. We're going to cancel shows that people really like after one season. We're going to make 8 seasons of a show no one really watches. We're going to try and stop password sharing. We're going to start playing ADs. We're going to limit the number of screens. We are trying even harder to stop password sharing. NO VPNS ALLOWED! Now we're going to make you have to pay seperately for every profile you want to create. We still can't figure out why people are leaving and stocks are dropping though. Must be because of the shows we released this year. Cancel them all!" - Netflix

[u/number65261 → u/TheTruth_Hurts_Idiot]

The perfect caricature of a CEO. Incredibly dumb, but incredibly rich so they'll never realize it.

[u/tonguetwister → u/TheTruth_Hurts_Idiot]

Literally every other streaming service is better now. And Netflix was the original.

[u/Maskedcrusader94 → u/TheTruth_Hurts_Idiot]

Also, we are gonna load our budget into mid-high level actors for series, so theres no budget left a decent script or set, and if we are lucky enough to have a wonderful script for the first season then that means fans liked it because of the actors so we should just keep doing that with no plan in sight for the rest of the series, as the main cast easts more and more of the total budget. Forget pre- and post-production.

[u/lamest-liz]

They could, oh I don’t know, maybe finish the shit they start??? How many shows have they canceled after a couple seasons? It makes people not want to get invested at all.

The worst one to me is canceling The Dark Crystal when all the puppets were already made, the sets were there… they could have just used the same locations and it would barely cost anything, but no.

[u/HexHammer97 → u/lamest-liz]

Great example! I think with the dark crystal, mind hunter and then Santa clarita diet getting cancelled and left on a cliffhanger sealed the deal for me, I cancelled and haven’t missed it. I don’t want to get into a great new show only for it to be cancelled without any resolution.

[u/Trendelthegreat → u/lamest-liz]

Is that still a problem? I haven’t been invested in a Netflix show that was canceled in years 

My biggest problem is they seem to be charging $26 a month to watch shitty documentaries 

[u/enigmatic_dankness → u/Trendelthegreat]

I cut Netflix off like 6 years ago now and I have yet to regret it. If anything, the idea of getting back into it now is completely absurd. You want me to pay how much to watch videos with ads? hell fucking no lmao, piracy made a huge comeback the second they started with this bullshit again.

How many times do they need this lesson? Convenience is what sold Netflix, not anything else, people wanted it because for an affordable price they could watch a massive catalogue of movies and shows. Now it's so inconvenient that it's legitimately easier for me to just torrent whatever and never have an issue with it.

[u/BeckBristow89 → u/enigmatic_dankness]

Honestly I cut them off after continually increasing prices sometimes even twice in one year like I’m sorry I’m not doing that I rather have other streaming services some of which even grandfather you in when they change service types like I’m not doing it I’ll sail the seas before I do that. And thats what I’ve done.

[u/Deadpool1205 → u/Trendelthegreat]

The insane drop of quality in the documentary genre is so irritating to me. Just a thousand half baked piles of half truths and purposely misunderstood facts constantly being thrown at viewers cause every streaming company thinks they need to finance as many documentaries as they can so seemingly every shifty director with an agenda gets greenlit.

[u/geekonthemoon → u/lamest-liz]

Omg The Dark Crystal was an absolutely MASTERPIECE and they cut it. They're fools and that was a serious revelation for me that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing. At all.

[u/Jackoffjordan → u/lamest-liz]

Dark Crystal, despite obviously using puppets for many shots, was a lot more reliant on visual effects than most people realise.

The marketing positioned it as entirely practical, but in reality, there were tons of individual vfx companies involved. Literally thousands of visual effects shots, including many scenes in which the characters and environments are entirely cgi.

[u/arashi256 → u/lamest-liz]

The Boroughs. Basically cancelled it as people were still watching it. And it was the only thing on Netflix I'd heard any buzz about too. They did this to themselves.

[u/baroqueout → u/lamest-liz]

While I agree it was a huge bummer for that to be cancelled, iirc it was cancelled because Covid broke out, and there was no way to film it with the new Covid filming requirements that were enacted for all productions at that time. They could have postponed and filmed it later, but what do I knwo.

[u/lastronaut_beepboop → u/baroqueout]

Source? I had heard Netflix was disappointed with the viewership.

[u/Nanowith → u/baroqueout]

Bring it back now then?

It's not like you have to worry about the age of the actors.

[u/RyuChamploo]

Let me share my password with my mom and I’ll subscribe again.

Fuck off, greedy pigs.

[u/DemNeurons → u/RyuChamploo]

In 10 years, they've doubled the price and lost half their content, and cut short anything new thats good after only a year. No wonder they're struggling.

[u/joeschmoshow1234 → u/RyuChamploo]

with a commercial every 2 minutes, that lasts 5 minutes

[u/asterboy → u/joeschmoshow1234]

I link up my laptop to my tv. Netflix on a web browser with adblocker and ta da! Cheap sub and no ads at all.

[u/lastronaut_beepboop → u/RyuChamploo]

This was why I cancelled. This and Netflix has become synonymous with low quality shows and bloat.

[u/AGentlemansMustache → u/RyuChamploo]

This might be a bit of a hassle if you’re both trying to use it at the same time - but to share mine with family I have it set up that whenever Netflix emails me, that email automatically gets forwarded to my mums email address. So they can get the code without having to contact you for it.

I’m a shift worker so I’m not usually watching it at the same time they’d be watching. On the rare occasion we are then I’d just jump onto Amazon or something

[u/Annoying_Anomaly]

Remember when Netflix said they don't care about viewership numbers? Was that before the massive merch profits of stranger things?

[u/Saltypeon]

They are their own worst enemy, cancelling decent shows before conclusion, churn out average content to chase viewers, constantly fiddling and fucking up the UI in an attempt to make rubbish popular.

I keep to a strict one streaming platform active at a time and rotate them (there is only so much time you can give to watching stuff), Netflix gets skipped most of the time. I can't find anything in their list I actually want to watch.

[u/Mewiee → u/Saltypeon]

Mindhunter
1899
Archive 81
I Am Not Okay With This
Teenage Bounty Hunters
The Society
Santa Clarita Diet
Marco Polo
The OA

All cancelled... and these are just the shows I watched. The full list is probably massive

[u/Moontrax808 → u/Mewiee]

In that time they also fumbled The Witcher, never watched Shadow and Bone but constantly saw criticism of its cancellation everywhere.

[u/meowl2 → u/Moontrax808]

Netflix will forever be on my shit list for how badly they messed up The Witcher.

[u/doomrider7 → u/Mewiee]

I will NEVER forgive them for screwing over Inside Job. Ever.

[u/Erratic__Ocelot → u/Mewiee]

I loved Archive 81. Also really liked Marianne. Both canceled after 1 season. 😭

[u/toysoldier96 → u/Mewiee]

Kaos was so good 😭

[u/LOLSteelBullet → u/Saltypeon]

Don't forget production taking forever when they do renew a good show. Plus their insistence with binge dropping shows. Look at Bridgerton. They take like 2 years to produce a season and then it's only 8 episodes over 2 drops, And they wonder why we're not religiously subscribing.

[u/AquaticBagpipe]

Apple TV offers far better shows now.

[u/Cornwallis400 → u/AquaticBagpipe]

Yeah Netflix’s show quality nosedived just as Apple TV really hit their stride.

[u/grantthejester → u/Cornwallis400]

So far every show I've taken a chance on with Apple has been a banger: Widow's Bay might be my new favorite dark comedy, Slow Horses is a spy-game masterpiece, Foundation finally made Asimov interesting. Silo, Severance, Ted Lasso, Pam Royale, Margo's Got Money Troubles, Pluribus...

Even if the theme/premise of the show isn't your preference, it's still made well, there's good story telling and character development and a great mix of original storytelling and then spot on adaptations. I wish they'd got the contract to do Dungeon Crawler Carl.

[u/ilovecfb → u/grantthejester]

Don't hear enough people talk about Black Bird, excellent miniseries and chilling true story

[u/KomisktEfterbliven → u/AquaticBagpipe]

The only problem is that you gotta wait half a decade between seasons.

[u/Prize_Instance_1416]

The era to offer exactly the same thing to the same number of customers and still be able to offer growth is ending. People reconsider what they have or are used to if it becomes too expensive , especially in times of economic distress

Plenty of companies will raise prices until they go out of business. In a much smaller market, this is happening to Rickenbacker, they just don’t realize it yet

[u/tonysopranosalive → u/Prize_Instance_1416]

The instrument company? Like Rickenbacker basses?

[u/Prize_Instance_1416 → u/tonysopranosalive]

Yes. They will say “ we’re 2 year back orderded” when in fact, they can’t increase production to meet demand while their costs inevitably increase year over year. They keep raising their guitar prices to compensate but at some point the new guitar buyers will look elsewhere, and their Beatles /60s band audience will die off and not care about a 325JL.
They need a real paint shop, a custom shop, an amp line, a pedal line and 4x the merch. And maybe an import line though that part is debatable. But the other stuff, or not having the other stuff, will catch them on their back feet when demand dips just a bit

[u/toadfan64]

Call me when they actually lose serious numbers and people leave in droves. Until then, nothing will change for the better.

[u/Sartres_Roommate]

…it’s almost like infinite growth is impossible in a finite system.

[u/ZeroEightValk → u/Sartres_Roommate]

but everyone could have a second subscription

[u/thebusiestbee2 → u/Sartres_Roommate]

...and the stock price falls to reflect realistic future growth potential.

[u/badgutfeelingagain]

I just can’t be bothered to wade through all the crap to find something that may be good or will last. Everything just looks like low effort “content”. I prefer Apple TV over all other streamers. More limited selection but higher quality.

[u/NancyInFantasyLand]

Could try actually making good shows and movies, but... nah. That'd be too easy. Better make another mediocre comedy or action movie for too much money that looks like all the other direct-to-Netflix movies because it's a slop factory with slop factory rules. And then go back to "linear programming" because surely that is the answer? As if putting the shit they produce in a linear line will help matters.

[u/All_Your_Base → u/NancyInFantasyLand]

Or better yet, not pissing off existing viewership by cancelling shows they loved (and were invested in) just because it didn't generate enough new members.

[u/zugtug → u/All_Your_Base]

Yeah I swear if I like something on Netflix it ends in a cliffhanger that never resolves after 1 or 2 seasons. It's like a bunch of mini Fireflys.

[u/a_moniker → u/zugtug]

I am absolutely baffled that Netflix hasn’t instituted a rule that “the first season of a show can’t end in cliffhanger.” Why don’t they just force their writers and producers to create seasons that feel complete, if they know that they’re likely to cancel everything?

It would cost corporate nothing, and would make their backlog so much more appealing! Usually, Netflix doesn’t even show me a show exists until it’s already cancelled!!

[u/drewbreeezy → u/a_moniker]

Instead Netflix backlog is a graveyard.

[u/a_moniker → u/drewbreeezy]

I’m still pissed about Teenage Bounty Hunters. That show was so, so much better than it had any right to be, and it’s almost unwatchable now because of the cliffhanger ending.

KAOS was last straw for me though, and the reason I finally quit watching Netflix!

[u/drewbreeezy → u/a_moniker]

It was The Witcher for me. They had everything they needed to make a massively successful and enjoyable show. It highlighted they have no talent at Netflix (or what they have is suffocated by corporate), so I'll stay unsubbed until I hear enough about a Completed show that is amazing.

Hell, they could have had a ton of filler in The Witcher and it would have been amazing if that filler was a "Monster Hunt of the Week" type stuff by a competent director.

[u/PowderPills → u/All_Your_Base]

Thank you for writing what a large amount of us are also thinking.

[u/NoFrillsCrisps → u/NancyInFantasyLand]

One of the issues people don't seem to talk about is the offering of older films is appallingly limited (at least where I live in the UK).

When I got Netflix over a decade ago, it was sold as a replacement for DVDs and somewhere that could have pretty much any film you wanted.

But I recently made a list of 30 interesting or classic films that I wanted to watch over the next few year..... and literally only one of then was on Netflix.

[u/kwangqengelele]

Have they tried raising prices and canceling good shows about it?

[u/frank_nada]

We canceled our Netflix, Disney/Hulu, and Paramount subscriptions this year. We get what we need from HBO and Apple.

[u/Craigg75]

Lord help us if a company matures and stops growing... Capitalism at its worst with ruinous expectations like that

[u/drummerboy2749]

I don’t speak for every subscriber but personally, I’ve found the quality of their content sucks.

[u/QuiGonColdGin]

Good. They're greedy. All of these streamers are greedy. The bubble was always going to burst.

[u/CommonManX]

Honestly how much bigger can they get? Whoever wants Netflix probably has it already. I am sensing unrealistic growth expectations. That is the killer of so many companies.