Two hit shows cause eight million increase in Netflix subscribers
Most people would agree there are far too many streaming services to choose from these days, but Netflix has implemented a simple-yet-elegant idea that’s seen subscribers numbers leap by millions.
Customers need to be increasingly selective as to which platforms they award their monthly fee, and as straightforward and obvious as it sounds, the easiest way to go about it is to provide original content that demands to be seen and can’t be found anywhere else.
In the last quarter alone, Netflix added another eight million subscribers to bringing it up to a total of 277.7 million globally, with revenue increasing by 17 per cent to $9.5 billion. Two of the biggest contributors to that leap have been Baby Reindeer and Bridgerton, which each dominated the most-watched charts for weeks, albeit for completely different reasons.
Richard Gadd’s semi-autobiographical drama became one of Netflix’s ten most-viewed episodic originals of all time, with audiences around the world equal parts transfixed and traumatised by the comedian’s story. The controversy after the fact revolving around the lawsuit being threatened by the alleged real-life inspiration behind the Martha character helped keep it in the headlines even longer, too, and may have convinced more folks to check it out based on the publicity both positive and negative.
As for Bridgerton, the period drama has been one of Netflix’s marquee shows ever since it first launched and set viewership records, with the lengthy wait between the second and third runs hypothetically meaning lapsed Netflix subscribers who’d abandoned their accounts may have been lured back in by the promise of more steamy scenes and involving storylines.
Netflix’s introduction of tiered payment plans and advertisement-supported subscription plans has helped it to retain subscribers while sacrificing some of its revenue, which is a hit the company has been willing to take as it seeks to return to the peak viewing hours it reached in 2020.
Of course, that was a period when great swathes of society were confined to their homes for extended periods of time with very little to do other than watch TV to keep themselves entertained, but top-quality programming that captures the cultural conversation is always going to be a winner.
Baby Reindeer and Bridgerton‘s third season have been two of the biggest televised talking points of the year so far, but it remains to be seen if Netflix posts another uptick in subscribers during the next quarter when both of those shows will have ceded the spotlight by then.