Netflix’s horrid run this year persists as its subscribers continues to drop off like flies. In the first quarter of the year, the streaming giant lost 200,000 subscribers, marking the first such drop in a decade. Now, it revealed in its Q2 2022 earnings that it lost 970,000 subscribers during the three-month period ending June 2022.
It is a bittersweet thing for Netflix to swallow. While this number is much lesser than two million the company had predicted to lose in the second quarter, it still marks the largest quarterly loss in the history of Netflix.
Region-wise, Netflix lost 1.3 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada, about 770,000 in Europe and West Asia and surprisingly grew by about 1 million subscribers in the Asia Pacific region. Currently, the streaming giant has 220.67 million subscribers. Its stock, which has taken quite a tumble this year, rallied after the company reported that it had lost far less subscribers than what it had predicted earlier.
Netflix’s shares are currently placed at $201.63.
Coming to its performance in other areas during the quarter, Netflix successful beat Wall Street’s estimates when it came to its diluted earnings per share (EPS). The same came at $3.20, exceeding the estimate of $2.94 per share. Its revenue, however, fell well short of the estimated $8.035 billion to amount to $7.97 billion for the past three months.
It also clocked a growth of 8.6% year-over year in the second quarter and looks to pocket $7.83 billion in the next quarter. It’s operating income fell from $1.9 billion in the first quarter to reach $1.5 billion in Q2. Its net cash for the quarter amounted to $103 million.
Netflix looks to avoid a hat-trick of quarterly losses in its subscriber base with its soft prediction of adding 1 million new subscribers in the current quarter. This, while falling short of the estimated 1.8 billion, will effectively reverse some of the significant losses the company has sustained over the past six months.
Some of the losses have been attributed to factors such as increasing inflationary pressures and the Russian invasion of Ukraine since February (the same resulted in the loss of 700,000 Russian customers in the first quarter of the year).
On the earnings call, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings said that “it’s tough losing a million [subscribers] and calling it a success,” but added that the company is “set up really well for the next year.”
“This freedom means we can offer big movies direct to Netflix, without the need for extended or exclusive theatrical windows, and let members binge-watch TV if they want, without having to wait for a new episode to drop each week,” the company said.
“This focus on choice and control for members influences all aspects of our strategy, creating what we believe to be a significant long-term business advantage.”
It remains to be seen whether Netflix’s new business strategy, which includes a new, cheaper, ad-supported tier in partnership with Microsoft, and paid password sharing, will help in the reversal of its fortunes.
