Netflix Loses Subscribers, Though Earnings Rise (dipped more than 25 percent in after-hours trading)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times

By BRIAN STELTER

Netflix said Monday that it ended the third quarter of the year with 23.8 million subscribers in the United States, a loss of 800,000 in three months, representing a notable decline after years of consistent growth.

The battered company attributed the losses — which were even greater than it anticipated — to price shock.

Heading into the summer, Netflix thought it would have 25 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter. Then it announced a change to its pricing structure that caused the cost of the combination streaming and DVD-by-mail service to rise to $16 a month, from $10. Some subscribers canceled their accounts in protest.

The subscriber figures were shared with investors on Monday when Netflix reported its quarterly earnings. Netflix stock dipped more than 25 percent in after-hours trading.

Read more: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/24/netflix-loses-subscribers-despite-higher-earnings/?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043

[geomon666]

1. Keep fucking the goose that laid the golden egg guys.

In case you haven't been paying attention, people aren't putting up with bullshit any more.

[Lionessa]

2. They've decided not to split last I heard, but that aside, their streaming videos

are very slim compared to what's available in DVD. I don't see how the streaming would survive. On and off all weekend I tried looking up actors or actresses to see what was available for some of my favorites (but not considered standard national favorites necessarily) and if I was lucky there would be one or two poorly rated old movies to stream, with 12-20 better and newer movies only on DVD. I must've tried 25-30 names more and same thing, popular or just my favorites, streaming availability sucks.

[KoKo]

43. I find all kinds of good stuff...old and new to stream...and if I can't stream I can wait a day or t

two for the DVD.. Love the old movies and series...and the shows they aquire.

There's so much to watch and so little time. I don't watch Cable or Network anymore...because of the crap and commercials...so it's great for our family. AND CHEAPER than CABLE or going out and dropping over $20.00 a pop for two with Big Popcorn and Big Coke...for just one movie that we may or may not even like.

[Hosnon]

3. I simply don't understand all the hoopla.

I had streaming-only and the fee dropped by a dollar (which equates to more than 10%).

[zonkers]

35. I find their streaming selection lacking. After a few months, I pretty much

watched what I wanted and new arrivals hardly come quick enough. I end up spending too much time browsing. Does anyone use instantwatcher.com which is a much better Netflix streaming interface than the netflix site itself?

[elocs]

4. At a couple of bucks more for one out at a time it was a no-brainer to go for it.

On a good week I could get 3 dvds, 10-12 dvds a month for an extra couple of bucks was a good deal. More than double my cost, no way. I can always find something to watch on streaming.

[qanda]

5. Proud to be one of the 800,000

[truebrit71]

14. Me too...they totally screwed the pooch with this move..

...

[Sportsguy]

42. Me Too (nt)

[onehandle]

6. Idiots. They owned the market, but now they are getting competition...

...and they do all of this at the worst time they could do this.

[liberal N proud]

7. We dropped them like a hot cake following their screw the customer moves

[ChromeFoundry]

8. Simple cure. Dump Reed Hastings, CEO.

and use his $5.5 million compensation package to offer better streaming options for the customers.

[Samantha]

9. Well COMCAST has been trying to run them out of business for some time now

and it looks like it is starting to succeed. Given my level of disdain for COMCAST and its ruthless way of doing business, I went to the Nexflix website today and ordered more DVD's. This company had a great price for years and a healthy respect for its customers, two things COMCAST has never had. The last thing I want to see is for Netflix to go under.

Sam

[laconicsax]

10. Whiny children leave Netflix when asked to pay for the services they use.

Streaming used to be a free service tacked onto the DVD service. Now, if you want unlimited streaming, you have to pay for it. If you don't use streaming, your rates go down. If you only use streaming (no DVDs), your rate goes down.

It isn't outrageous to charge $8/month for unlimited DVD or streaming, nor is it outrageous to charge for both services.

Flame away, explain why you shouldn't have to pay for the services you use.

[Omaha Steve]

12. I doubt we streamed once a month

So we dropped the streaming. We've been with Netflix since the beginning.

[qanda]

13. Calling those of us who left whiny children

Won't make us come running back. It's one thing to add services and then double the cost but the poor amount of (streaming) content that Netflix has is not worth separating the cost. I pay $79 a year for Amazon Prime and the free shipping is worth every penny but they also throw in free streaming of content that is being updated all the time. People want to pay for services they use or they wouldn't have signed up in the first place, they just don't want to pay double what they are currently paying with very little added benefit and the way Netflix handled it was terrible. No flames from me but I prefer not to call names while arguing my point.

Edited to add: *streaming* content

[truebrit71]

15. The "free" service we received was part of the deal...what NetFuX did was..

..to then increase the fees by 100% for something we already got...

When I signed up the deal was 1 DVD at a time and online streaming for $8.99/a month...they DIDN't change the deal but wanted to charge $16.99 for the very same thing we had been receiving...how is it NOT outrageous to double the fees charged in that scenario...???

"whiny children"....niiiiiiiiiiiiiice :eyes:

[laconicsax]

20. When Netflix started their streaming service, it was tiny. It has since expanded.

I know people hate to pay for what they use, but running a company costs money, and it's unrealistic to expect a company to provide such a large service for free indefinitely.

And yes, whiny children. After all, you're complaining about being charged less than $10 for unlimited streaming from a huge library that's still growing.

[iris27]

22. You're overlooking the people who left based on the insulting way this was handled.

We didn't leave after the price hike, though it did annoy me that they didn't explain the real reasons behind it. The content providers for streaming wanted to charge them based on the entire customer base, not just the ones who were actually using streaming. How hard would it have been to just say that in the first place?

We left after their bungled attempt to split services. I had no problem paying more, but I did have a problem being asked to jump through more hoops just because Hastings was 'like, sooo over DVDs'.

They eventually backtracked on that, but I was already gone and have no interest in going back. They made it clear that they value the idea of being on the cutting edge more than they value actually listening to their customers.

[laconicsax]

27. True, the way it was handled was complete shit. n/t

[truebrit71]

33. The fact that it costs money to run a company is factored into the initial pricing...

...They weren't providing it "for free", that's where you're buying into the bullshit company line...they weren't giving it away "free" at all...it was PART of the whole package...That's like them charging you for the red envelopes thay came in...afterall they had been providing those to you "free" as well, right?

They offered a package that included 1 dvd and unlimited streaming for $X, they then decided to try and get cute and split them off and charge $X for EACH component...nothing whiny about complaining when a corporation tries to gouge its customers...And there are 799,999 other former customers that agree with me...

The CEO of this company is going to go down in business history as one of the dumbest mothercluckers to ever see the inside of a boardroom...

[fascisthunter]

25. neemer nibnub dimpledooda dumb

what do ya have stock with the company. Geez... you take their own issues a bit too personal.

[laconicsax]

28. I'm not taking it personally at all.

I just find outrage over $9 for unlimited streaming to be the height of ridiculous.

[fascisthunter]

29. going out of your way to complain about people as you have...

...and then call them call them names tells me different. Besides, $9 is a lot to some folks.

[laconicsax]

30. Am I not allowed to comment on posts now?

:eyes:

[fascisthunter]

36. um... I didn't state that... calling people names is part of commenting

if you want to frame it that way, go ahead... but it won't achieve much.

[JDPriestly]

11. The subscribers will be back.

[Xithras]

17. Why would we?

As a Dish Network subscriber, I now use the Blockbuster service. Unlimited disk rentals by mail, Blu-Ray at no extra charge (unlike Netflix) unlimited video game rentals by mail, and unlimited online streaming of movies that are actually RECENT (not just the TV shows and decade old movies that Netflix streams, though it does have many of those too). For all that, I pay $10 a month. Why would I go back?

Netflix's greatest screwup is that they forced their own customers to re-evaluate their own service usage, and to look at their competitors more closely.

As one friend and fellow Netflix refugee put it, "I'd never really thought about it, but I probably watched seven or eight Netflix movies and shows a month. Even at the new rates, that works out to around a dollar per show. Is it really worth a dollar to watch an old Family Guy rerun? Not really."

[JDPriestly]

18. Why would you? Because Blockbuster does not offer a lot of

films, especially foreign language films, that Netflix offers.

[Xithras]

19. And how many foreign language films does the average Netflix customer watch?

You can't support a huge company like Netflix by relying on niche markets to maintain a subscriber base.

For the average "I watch a couple movies a month" viewer, Redbox, Hulu Plus, and even Blockbuster are usually a more economical deal. For people like me who already have Dish Network, switching to Blockbuster is almost a no-brainer.

[JDPriestly]

31. We have no cable and are willing to pay more for Netflix because

we prefer them by far to Blockbuster.

[JDPriestly]

32. Blockbuster is Republican. That is another reason we don't want

to buy their services.

Just wait. Blockbuster will undercut Netflix's prices and then, when Netflix is out of business, Blockbuster will raise theirs to the point you can't afford to subscribe. People who leave Netflix are, in my opinion, just supporting a Republican company. Netflix supports more Democrats.

I also use Credo phone service because of their political stances.

[Xithras]

39. Not anymore.

That may have been true at one time, but Blockbuster is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Dish isn't exactly a "Republican" company.

[shanti]

37. i have dish network

but also have netflix because i DO watch a lot of foreign and niche movies. hey, it works for me so i'm staying with netflix.

[iris27]

24. Not this former subscriber.

Blockbuster Online has new releases sooner, and I can get games instead of DVDs/Blu-rays if I want. The streaming never had the movies I wanted to watch, anyway, and every DVD that was on my Netflix queue is in Blockbuster's database, too. Maybe they have a greater number of obscure films, but what do I care if I'm not watching them anyway?

I was a Netflix customer for 7 years before this fiasco.

Even now that they're no longer punting DVDs off onto Qwikster, they are still seriously shifting the focus almost entirely onto streaming. To look at their website now, the only mention of DVDs is a FAQ "Can I still get DVDs by mail?". And it looks like new customers can only get the 1-at-a-time unlimited...no more 2- or 3-at-a-time.

[Xithras]

16. I can't believe their shareholders haven't sued yet. They've been screwed.

In mid-July, they were trading at $300 a share. As of this moment, they're trading at $77 a share. If those stocks were in MY retirement account, I'd be furious right about now.

[killbotfactory]

21. Dropped DVD service years ago

Been streaming since. I have access to more than I can watch, and it's great for kids shows (No commercials). They greatly expanded their selection since they started, and studios were demanding more money to license the stuff for streaming. The outrage over the move is lost on me, since half the people say they never used streaming but are still pissed about being charged if they want to use it. I don't get it.

[ecstatic]

23. The people who didn't cancel probably have no idea of the price hike yet

They don't look at their statements that carefully.

[shanti]

38. ???

i didn't cancel because i still like netflix and don't want to cancel....and i'm quite capable of reading my statements :eyes:

[fascisthunter]

26. HA HA!!!! I left too

too bad

[Scout]

34. i stayed. my price went down. i never used the streaming, and now i'm DVD only. n/t

[Born Free]

40. Love Netflix

We stream about 3 - 4 hours daily, our Netflix instant queue is loaded with TV series that we never got a chance to watch when they were first being aired.. I still get the dvd by mail as well. Most of the new DVD releases are not too good but occasionally one like Captain America: The first Avenger comes along and makes up for the bad ones. I like having a dvd come to the house but do spend more time watching the Instant Videos. We dropped all the pay channels, and mostly use the Tivo for Keith Olbermann and another series or two. If we had a Red Box withing walking distance I might consider that but having the mailman deliver our Netflix works really well. We have several Roku devices and watch other channels as well, including the Amazon Prime free videos, but Netflix is our favorite. Yes $16 is a lot more than $10 but we dropped all the premium channels so we are still paying less.

[KoKo]

41. Same here except that we don't really need Red Box. We like older stuff and

getting DVD's for older series (PBS Mini-Series/Mysteries & such)...plus they do get some good streaming for moview that are good but only showed in limited places. We love both the DVD and Streaming.

At $20.00 a month for Unlimited Watching we think it's huge bargain! And, we don't have to pay for Popcorn & Coke...we can do our "Organic Popcorn" and "Green Iced Tea" at home! :D (usually it's a glass of wine or beer with the popcorn, though)

It's a damned bargain...and you can give up your cable if you get a ROKU/Apple TV/BOXEE or WII! Who needs the rest of it. :shrug:

[Scout]

44. we don't have any of the premium cable channels either...

we have Comcast "digital basic" or something like that. it has a few of the channels that are movies only, with no commercials, from the Encore group.

we don't have any games or any way to stream to the tv, and no desire to do so. and i'm just not into watching movies on the computer.

so, DVDs only is a great plan for us.