The 8 reasons people are turning off Netflix – from price hikes to preachy woke documentaries
NETFLIX was once the king of TV streaming, but the maker of The Crown is losing its shine – and its subscribers.
The US tech giant has lost 200,000 so far this year and expects to shed another two million by the end of 2022.
Its founder, Reed Hastings, blamed illegal password sharing for the grim figures.
But critics point to the firm’s woke content, including signing up Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and a shortage of new must-see shows.
Tesla founder Elon Musk, who is trying to buy Twitter, called Netflix “unwatchable”.
Splashing out huge sums, such as £75million for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s services, has left the company with debts in the billions.
Read more on Netflix
But investors have only lent those eye-watering sums on the promise of ever increasing subscription numbers, and last night Netflix’s share price plummeted.
Price hikes, increased competition, the end of lockdown and too much trash TV will only give those lenders even more cause for concern.
Grant Rollings pinpoints the eight main reasons why the creator of Bridgerton is in trouble.
Prices on up
WITH the cost of living crisis biting hard in Britain, news of Netflix price hikes will be unwelcome.
Most read in TV
From next month the streaming service will be charging customers 17 per cent more. The basic and standard plans are going up by £1 to £6.99 and £10.99 respectively, while the premium service is up by two quid to £15.99.
The company will need that extra dosh to pay for the £14billion it is spending on new content this year.
But when gas and electricty prices go up again in October, those households which are facing a decision between heating and eating are unlikely to want to stick with their Netflix subscription above all else.
Rivals on rise
THE lure of the Kardashians and Obi-Wan Kenobi is sure to tempt subscribers to the Disney+ side.
Ewan McGregor will return as the Jedi Master on the rival streaming service next month, and the Kardashians have already moved to the House of Mouse.
Consumers can already sign up for streaming rivals Now TV, Apple TV or BritBox, and soon they will be able to watch Paramount+ too.
Netflix’s main competition remains Amazon Prime Video, which has the blockbusting £350million The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power series coming up.
Viewers often ditch subscriptions once their favourite series end, so Netflix will need enticing fresh content to stop them leaving.
No big dramas
NETFLIX used to have a slew of must-see dramas such as Breaking Bad, House Of Cards, Orange Is The New Black and The Crown.
But the only current series that workmates are likely to be keen to discuss around the watercooler is Bridgerton.
While the second series of the steamy period drama is Netflix’s best-watched English-language series so far, at 627 million hours, there isn’t anything else to get excited about.
The most recent new Netflix series, Anatomy Of A Scandal, starring Sienna Miller, received scathing reviews.
Its most popular shows in the first three months of the year were the weighty Ozark, about money laundering, and Inventing Anna, based on the true story of a fake heiress.
Trashy shows
THE service’s commissioning editors have been seduced into making knock-offs of ITV’s Love Island and Channel 4’s Married At First Sight.
As a result Netflix is constantly churning out reality dating shows such as Too Hot To Handle, Love Is Blind, The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On and the forthcoming Dated And Related — in which brothers and sisters will team up to find suitable partners for each other.
The problem is that similar content is available for free on plenty of British channels, such as E4 or ITV2.
Why pay to watch bronzed beauties in bikinis and hunks in trunks when they are available without charge 24/7 elsewhere?
Dull movies
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH western The Power Of The Dog might have wowed Oscar voters but it didn’t impress viewers.
The slow-moving drama about a mean-spirited cowboy earned 12 nominations and won best director for New Zealand’s Jane Campion.
Yet many people didn’t understand the ending or what the Netflix movie was all about.
The service’s other new films, The Lost Daughter, starring Olivia Colman, and Tick, Tick . . . Boom! with Andrew Garfield, were also Oscar nominated this year without becoming top picks for Netflix subscribers.
Only the star-studded eco satire Don’t Look Up was a true hit, becoming the biggest film release on the streaming service in January.
Gone woke
THE world’s richest man, Tesla founder Elon Musk, tweeted yesterday that “the woke mind virus is making Netflix unwatchable.”
And that situation seems unlikely to improve, with the woke Duke and Duchess of Sussex being paid £75million to produce new content.
The couple promised material “that informs but also gives hope”, but viewers seem unimpressed, with one tweeting: “The majority of the public are not remotely interested in watching content like Harry & Meg’s patronising, virtue-signalling lectures on Netflix.”
There are already plenty of Netflix documentaries to make viewers feel guilty, such as Seaspiracy, about overfishing, and Cowspiracy, on the perils of meat production.
Boost is over
WHEN much of the planet was banned from going out due to Covid-19 restrictions Netflix saw its viewing figures boom.
It added 36million subscribers during the first year of the pandemic, which was its biggest yearly growth since the streaming service launched in 2007.
But now that the British public are allowed to socialise again, and with sunny weather tempting them outside, there is not much of a reason to hang about on the sofa with the remotes.
Recent figures reveal that while there were 1.29million new subscriptions to all UK streaming services in the first three months of 2022, another 1.51million cancelled — leaving 220,000 fewer subscribers to go round.
Cut classics
WHEN Disney+ launched in 2019 it made sure Netflix could no longer show its massive library of hit movies.
They include the five biggest ever box office successes — Avatar, Avengers: End Game, Titanic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Avengers: Infinity War.
To make matters worse for Netflix, rival Amazon recently paid £6.5billion to buy up MGM Studios, whose impressive back catalogue contains the James Bond and Rocky films.
That means it’s unlikely that Netflix will have a licence to stream 007 again.
It will also miss out on the first run of Robert Pattinson’s The Batman, which will be available to stream for a fee on the likes of Amazon and Rakuten.
By Rod McPhee, TV Editor
NETFLIX may be facing some turbulence – but I feel sure it will weather the storm.
From The Crown to Bridgerton, Tiger King to Sex Education, The Tinder Swindler to House Of Cards, it has delivered some of the best comedies, dramas and documentaries of recent years.
Along with Amazon Prime Video, it is the organisation which has really blazed a trail for the most outstanding period in TV’s history.
Traditional broadcasters such as the BBC and ITV are now trying to produce shows and services more like Netflix, and without it, their competitors – Disney+, Apple TV+ and Discovery – might never have existed.
It’s an eye-rolling cliche, but it really is a victim of its own success. The fact that it has hit a rough patch was inevitable.
Let’s face it, ALL broadcasters, production companies and streamers will be experiencing challenges in the wake of the pandemic, the war and the TV market’s initial big boom.
So of course Netflix has got some decisions wrong. The love of wokery, for a start.
Then there’s the rising cost of subscription, the sheer length of some of its series and the great variance in quality amid an ocean of options. All of which it needs to reassess. And fast.