Netflix has hit a stumbling block in their rise to total entertainment dominance, missing its growth forecast in the last quarter, blaming the lack of interest in the streaming service, post-lockdown, for its decline.
In the last quarter, the company added 1.54 million new subscribers, well below the 1.75 million analysts had been projecting, and a measly figure in comparison to the 10 million new subscribers it gained this time last year during lockdown. Their subscriber growth has therefore proved volatile over the course of the past year, with the company saying in a statement that the Coronavirus had created, “lumpiness in our membership growth, which is working its way through”.
With production delays also rampant throughout the entertainment industry due to Covid-19, this meant that there were fewer original offerings in the first half of 2021, with Netflix stating that their slate of original content, “will build through the course of the year”.
The streaming service is far from being down and out, however, with Netflix ending the quarter with over 209 million subscribers, and received over 120 Emmy nominations last week for shows including Bridgerton, The Crown and The Queen’s Gambit. Along with these recent successes, they have also confirmed their future intentions to provide video games on their streaming platforms as a matter of priority.
“We’re excited as ever about our movies and TV series offering and we expect a long runway of increasing investment and growth across all of our existing content categories, but since we are nearly a decade into our push into original programming, we think the time is right to learn more about how our members value games,” Netflix stated.
Lead analysts are beginning to suggest Netflix’s lead on the streaming service opposition could be slipping, with rivals including Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+ gaining significant momentum. According to new research, Netflix’s share of global demand, a system measuring the popularity of shows, fell below 50% for the first time in the second quarter of 2021.
