Posted on 07/22/2019 8:25:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Wednesday, Netflix announced its subscriber base in the United States declined for the first time since 2011.
The streaming giant had forecast a gain of 300,000 during the second quarter (April through June), but instead it lost about 130,000 homes here. Thanks to international growth, Netflix still added 2.7 million customers overall, pushing its global base to a record 151 million. But even that wasn’t entirely good news: Netflix had told investors it expected to gain about 5 million new customers in the quarter, making this its biggest missed forecast since 2016. So what’s behind this gloomy quarter for the company?
Netflix blames the decline on its most recent price increase. “Our missed forecast was across all regions but slightly more so in regions with price increases,” Netflix explained to its investors, but they also blame lackluster programming. “We think Q2’s content slate drove less growth in paid net adds than we anticipated.”
Perhaps there’s another factor that Netflix is missing, or evening ignoring when it comes to their disappointing numbers. For more than a year now, Netflix has made some controversial moves that undeniably alienated a large portion of its U.S. subscribers: conservatives.
Back in March of 2018, Netflix named former Susan Rice, the former National Security Adviser and Ambassador to the United Nations under Barack Obama, to their Board of Directors. Susan Rice was a key figure in the Benghazi attack cover-up, pushing a false narrative to the media in order to give Obama political cover before the 2012 election. Rice was also behind the controversial unmasking of Trump administration officials on intelligence reports involving the Russian collusion hoax. Rice’s placement on the Board of Directors was also criticized because her national security background seemed irrelevant to being on the BOD of an entertainment company.
Nevertheless, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings defended the decision saying, “For decades, she has tackled difficult, complex global issues with intelligence, integrity and insight and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and wisdom.” Yeah, right.
Then there was the announcement in May 2018 that Netflix would be partnering with Barack and Michelle Obama to produce content. "President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have entered into a multi-year agreement to potentially produce films and series for Netflix, potentially including scripted series, unscripted series, docuseries, documentaries, and features," they announced via Twitter.
The announcement was met with immediate backlash from conservatives, just like the Susan Rice announcement did.
More recently, Netflix threatened to boycott Georgia and cease filming in the state over its controversial abortion law. “We have many women working on productions in Georgia, whose rights, along with millions of others, will be severely restricted by this law,” said Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, in a statement to Variety in May. “It’s why we will work with the ACLU and others to fight it in court. Given the legislation has not yet been implemented, we’ll continue to film there, while also supporting partners and artists who choose not to. Should it ever come into effect, we’d rethink our entire investment in Georgia.” In response to Netflix’s threat to boycott Georgia, pro-lifers, in turn, called for a boycott of Netflix.
Does Netflix really expect us to believe that rate hikes are to blame for their loss of subscribers when previous rate hikes did not have a similar impact? Maybe they should consider the possibility that the repeated alienating of conservatives subscribers and potential subscribers was also a contributing factor.
We've seen Hollywood take huge hits because of actors and programming becoming increasingly political and agenda-driven. The anti-Trump Murphy Brown reboot was canceled after just one season, yet Tim Allen's Last Man Standing, which was canceled by ABC (possibly due to conservative politics on the show), was brought back on Fox and continues to have big ratings. I think it's time Netflix, and Hollywood in general, acknowledge the fact that conservatives crave entertainment too, and they don't want to be lectured with left-wing propaganda when they watch a movie or a series. They want high-quality entertainment that speaks to them instead of talking down to them.
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Matt Margolis is the author of the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. His new book, Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama's Legacy, will be published on July 30, 2019. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
I dropped their sorry asses when they hire Obama!!!!
Yes.
I cancelled after they put that fiction about the Central park 5 rapists and attempted murderers on just so they could make Trump look bad. If ever there was a miscarriage of justice it was this case, the fact that these 5 punks were exonerated and made millionaires solely on the word of a psychotic serial rapist who raped his own mother.
Apparently according to the liberals running “justice” in NYC, if you rape a woman and don’t actually ejaculate inside her it isn’t rape and therefore you should be rewarded with millions of dollar. Don’t take my word for it, talk to the lead cop who investigated that case Eric Reynolds who I talk to quite often, Reynolds is BLACK which the treason media ignored when this case broke so they could push the “racist cops set up black children” narrative. What Netflix did is absolutely unforgivable and I hope Linda Fairstein sues the living freakin pants out of them and the racist scum who produced that movie of pure fiction.
https://www.facebook.com/eric1062
I’m getting ready to dump Netflix because every new show is just SJW propaganda. It’s boring. I don’t mind paying a bit more for quality programming but the current selection is just garbage.
Netflix will have very little content in the next few years.
Consolidation has made it economical for the few remaining content owners to start their own streaming services. Disney will start next year, and Disney is all that’s keeping Netflix afloat.
Of course the Obozo family deal did nothing to help them, but the real long term enemy is nothing to show for $13.99 per month. That’s the stuff that rules stock prices.
That’s true in our house; we didn’t think this latest season was very good so I’m a little closer to convincing the wife that we should cancel Netflix. We already cancelled our dish service.
I was waiting for the second season of Mindhunter. But gave up.
I don’t think Amazon will do that.
I do my best not to watch liberal crap/propaganda. I enjoyed Stranger Things and a few other shows that are on Netflix. Some of the foreign language series that have been dubbed into English are pretty good. Fun to watch with the English subtitles on as sometimes the spoken dubbed words are different then the subtitles, though mean the same.
I families only have enough money for one streaming service..it will be Disney..
And they do not start til next year
Any CEO that gets involved in politics should be fired..
Dropped Netflix 4 months ago because:
- Tired of the explicit and non-explicit gay content in just about all their in-house content
- They ditched their customer-driven content rating system, because it showed that the in-house crap was poorly received, and that most of their third party content was of very low quality
- Obama deal (last straw)
Price increases had ZERO to do with it.
Did Alienating Conservatives Cause Netflix To Lose Subscribers?
Did not help!!
I signed up for NETFLIX was $10 a month (one DVD a week) but unlimited streaming. Since I was retired I could watch as much as I wanted but as I worked through their inventory there was less and less I wanted.
One good thing is since the price was “free” I did expand my viewing habits and discovered a few gems in with the dregs.
At last they split HOME DVD and Streaming and so I kept the streaming. Then I heard they were paying Obama for content and that was too much so I cancelled.
Now I use YouTube for finding things to watch.
A lot of old movies and TV programs.
The problem for NETFLIX is that content providers they used in the past are starting their own streaming service. The inventory on Netflix is getting smaller.
The Highwaymen
And ......... for months, Netflix has the same stale selections in the “New Release” section. The leftist propaganda is pretty much everywhere, as are the fag flix, but Netflix’s selections grow slimmer every season.
Same here, switched to Hulu.
My wife and I cancelled our subscription after the Michelle Wolf comedy show where she had a “happy birthday Abortion” festival. There was nothing funny about it. It was disgusting. As others have said, much of their in-house programming contains leftist propaganda.
We did not suggest that others should cancel. We simply felt convicted that we would NOT support this type of programming. I shrugged when they hired Obama and Rice... it is a business and there are millions who might be interested in the Obama story (not me) so more power to them.
I do not call for others to “boycott” anything, but people should follow their own convictions and act accordingly. The idea that I was paying money to Michelle Wolf was too much for me and I think I read somewhere that they cancelled her show shortly thereafter. I wrote “Michelle Wolf” in the blank as the reason we cancelled.
If not for my wife, I would have cut it the day they gave money to Obama.
“I didn’t resubscribe, because their content is trash.”
We’ve watched some good shows on Netflix, practically all British or Australian made. I’m having trouble finding ones that we consider watchable.
However, there is much more content on dvd.com.
I see that imdb.com and youtube have pay-for services. Can someone give information on them or others?
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