Dum Dum!

That might be the sound of doom as the largest streaming service is seeing red and making plans to survive by asking a bit more from their consumers.

Netflix has 221m subscribers, making it the largest streaming service but things haven’t been so great as the platform lost ‘bout 200k subscribers in the first quarter of 2022 and will reportedly lose over 2mil in the second.

Challenges such as penetration in large communities has been a problem, wit India (largest community outside of China, where Netflix is not available) being very slow on the uptake despite efforts by Netflix to be inclusive and use shows like Bridgerton to drive Indian storylines and characters. Another challenge was Russia and the war, that saw audiences in that region fall off.

Netflix boss Reed Hastings says they’re now considering something the company has always vowed never to do, and that is to bring in ads on the streaming platform. 

Netflix is considering a low tier ad option and curbing the password sharing option that has seen many users take advantage of. He says they may still allow password sharing but for a higher than normal fee for those users who still wish for it.

Wall Street and plenty shareholders are now sceptical and wondering if these drops and new plans are signifying the end of an era for the streaming giant and perhaps the end of the excitement generally of streaming services as we’ve come to kno them.

Would adverts on Netflix make you reconsider your subscription to the streaming service?