- Netflix has decided to shift its focus to other parameters of success, as it will no longer give quarterly updates on its subscriber count from 2025.
- The decision might not sit well with the investors who use subscriber count as a parameter to decide Netflix’s trajectory. However, the company will soon address their concerns in the quarterly live investor video interview.
- As per the latest numbers, Netflix has 269.6 million users.
Netflix has decided to stop telling the world about its subscriber tally. Starting next year, the company will put out an announcement only when it reaches a major subscriber milestone or there’s an unusual change in the numbers.
‘We’re not going to be silent on members (they will still give periodic updates) but it won’t be part of our regular reporting.’ – Co-CEO Greg Peters
Why Did Netflix Make This Decision?
Netflix says that subscribers aren’t a good unit to measure a company’s success. It has urged analysts to look at its revenue instead.
Talking about the decision, Netflix said that back when it had very little profit and revenue, subscriber count was the only way to measure growth. So, it made sense to make those numbers public.
However, things have changed now. The company is generating a good amount of profit along with free cash flow. It has also added new revenue streams like advertising and extra member add-ons. What’s more, even its pricing structure has evolved and now features multiple tiers.
In short, the amount of money Netflix is making from, say, 1,000 subscribers is a lot more today than what it used to be a few years ago.
The company is also shifting its focus to parameters like viewership to measure growth. According to Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, when it comes to streaming platforms, the best way to judge performance is through engagement rate, watch time, and viewership.
Why Is Netflix’s Decision Troublesome for Investors?
Netflix might have a solid argument to not make its subscriber count public. However, no logical explanation negates the fact that this decision might make investors uneasy. Even analysts agree that this would be a controversial move.
If the company decides not to disclose its membership count, investors will have very little information on how the company is performing. Without that knowledge, it’ll be tough for them to make sound financial decisions.
Netflix, however, has decided to address investor concerns. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg PetersCFO and Spencer Neumann and VP of Finance/IR/Corporate Development Spencer Wang will soon talk to the inventors on the quarterly live investor video interview.
Also, it’s very likely that Netflix could instead publish reports around its viewership metrics, which would indeed be a good supplement to updating subscriber count. But if it doesn’t do that, either, it’ll be very difficult not to look at this decision from a lens of skepticism.
Netflix’s Future Plans
The company has been doing rather well of late. For starters, Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing reaped expected benefits, and it has been gaining new subscribers at good pace for more than a year now.
- Netflix added nearly 30 million subscribers in 2023 on the back of its low-priced advertising tier.
- It then gained around 10 million new subscribers in the first quarter of 2024.
- As of March 31, 2024, the company has 269.6 million users.
In fact, Netflix’s success has now pushed Disney Plus to also crackdown on password-sharing. This comes after both Disney+ and Hulu lost subscribers due to Netflix’s increasing dominance in the market.
However, the concerning bit is that the video streaming industry as a whole is getting saturated. According to a report, the overall growth in the industry halved in 2023 compared to the previous year.
The best news for Netflix investors is that the company has a handful of plans to fuel its growth. In January this year, Netflix secured a 10-year deal with WWE RAW worth over $5 billion.
Next, according to a report from Wolfe Research, it might soon bid on NBA streaming rights. If that deal goes through, Netflix will undoubtedly unlock the door to millions of new subscribers.
Netflix’s Stock Market Performance Leading up to the Decision & What’s Next
Netflix’s share prices have been increasing at breakneck speed for quite some time now—since July 2022. However, the share prices fell by 6.8% after the aforementioned announcement, plus its projection for the second quarter was also below market expectations.
I don’t want to irk investors, but the Netflix share is undoubtedly at a critical point. Allow me to explain:
Starting with good news, Netflix’s recent fall might well be because the share is nearing a major resistance—its all-time high—marked by the red line in the above image. But the same could be bad news, too, at least for the immediate future.
Given the resistance and the fact that it has already experienced significant gains in the past few weeks, the Netflix share could very well be poised for a correction in the upcoming weeks.
However, if Netflix’s moves go as planned, the correction could be a short and sweet one. Not only will it then run to new all-time highs, but it should also give good, discounted entries when the 50EMA and 200EMA flatten out, hug each other, and then start ascending again.
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice, just a personal opinion of a technical analysis enthusiast.
