Is Netf lix DOOMED?
The streaming service just had its worst week ever. Can it survive ‘peak TV’?
Netflix had the Week From Hell recently. And, no, that’s not the title of the latest horror film to arrive on the platform. It is, however, an all-too real description of a whole load of bad news that ended with the company losing 40 per cent of its share value in one day, which left some media commentators and financial experts wondering if there’s even a future for the service.
The harsh fact is that, after a decade of relentless growth, the company has warned it expects to lose two million subscribers this quarter, after shedding 200k in the last quarter (admittedly it lost 700k due to its decision to pull out of Russia after the Ukraine invasion, meaning subscriber numbers would be up had it not done so).
So, what has happened to the service that made binge-watching a phenomenon? And can it hope to survive while a load of mega-rich rivals are threatening its supremacy?
BUILDING THE HOUSE OF CARDS
In 2012, the year Netflix launched in the UK, it started making its own original shows. Until then, it was all about streaming existing films and series to its subscribers. But once it unleashed its lavish political thriller House Of Cards in full, ready for viewers to consume in one go, it never looked back.
In the decade since, Netflix has amassed 220million subscribers in 190 countries, although it only started making an actual profit last year. In that time, it has become a byword for binge-worthy, prestige TV with high production values and gripping storylines, from Stranger Things to Ozark Bridgerton to Squid Game. Quite simply, it made watching TV sexy.
Now, not only do all the old established TV channels have their own streaming services, they also provide bingeable “box sets” of their big series, in recognition of the user-friendly model Netflix pioneered. In fact, it feels like every TV, media and tech company has launched its own streaming service.
A WORLD OF STREAMERS
Now, Netflix is facing competition from giants such as Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+,
‘It’s in danger of being an also-ran’
as well as US TV services including NBC’S Peacock, Paramount Plus, HBO Max and so on.
And, if you want to get access to all these streamers, it’s an expensive business. Remarkably, Netflix is still the biggest of all of them, in terms of monthly subscribers, and it’s spent $55billion on content since 2018. But it’s also had to increase its fees recently, at a time when consumers all round the world are facing rising bills, and it has also been affected by users sharing their log-ins, so there are millions of non-paying viewers.
Netflix is also facing potentially a bigger problem: it doesn’t have enough good shows.
MORE BRIDGERTONS NEEDED
Sure, there’s Bridgerton – its biggest Englishlanguage hit to date – and global phenomenon Squid Game, and we’ll soon get to see new seasons of Stranger Things and The Witcher etc, while the service is rightly getting kudos for diverse and inclusive series such Sex Education and the recent LGBTQ+ teen drama Heartstopper. It’s also upped its reality game with the likes of Selling Sunset and Love Is Blind. And yet… that doesn’t seem like much of a return on the $55billion it’s invested in content.
In contrast, Apple TV+ has recently unleashed a stream of massively entertaining star-studded series – Ted Lasso,
Servant, The Morning Show, Severance, Slow Horses, AND won the Best Picture Oscar for its film CODA, while Prime Video has pumped its vast millions into the Lord Of The Rings prequel series The Rings Of Power, due later this year. Disney+, meanwhile, is giving us myriad Marvel and Star Wars series. Suddenly, Netflix is in danger of looking like an also-ran. It doesn’t help that it axed some of its most uniquely inventive shows like The OA and Archive 81.
So, is this really the beginning of the end of Netflix? Not necessarily. First, it’s got some bighitting shows on the way, including dark fantasy The Sandman with Tom Sturridge and Gwendolyn Christie, plus it has more shows coming soon from hit factory Shondaland, and it still has a huge global subscriber base. But it does undoubtedly need more genuinely unmissable, addictive returning series like Bridgerton. Lots more.
One thing’s for sure, though: the streaming TV revolution isn’t over yet. ■