Life for Netflix just keeps getting worse.
This week the woke lefty streaming service announced that it lost 1 million subscribers in the second quarter, the largest quarterly loss of customers in the company’s history. But, because the bad news wasn’t the bad news investors had expected, Netflix shares rose more than 10 percent in after-hours trading.
As Breitbart reports, Netflix reported 970,000 customers quit the service during the quarter, a continuation of the mass subscriber exodus that began earlier this year. Netflix had forecast a net loss of 2 million subscribers for the second quarter, while analysts were expecting a loss of 1.4 million to 1.8 million.
Even though shareholders were pleasantly surprised by the lower-than-expected subscriber exodus, Netflix still has a challenge in retaining subscribers due to competition in the streaming service universe. HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video smell blood and are coming up with creative ways to lure consumers away from Netflix, even amid skyrocketing inflation and an impending recession.
Netflix in turn is about to release an ad-supported version of its service which will be cheaper than the subscriber version in an effort to right the sinking ship. This notion had been proposed a while ago, but executives had been hesitant to pull the trigger and instead double-downed on new programming for the original streaming service.
Competitors closing in! $NFLX relieved investors (sort of) w/ 970K sub loss (vs exp 2M loss) 📺
This puts eyes on $DIS reporting in approx 3 weeks, which could show more ground gaining on #Netflix 🧐$QQQ $WBD #Streaming #DisneyPlus #StocksInFocus pic.twitter.com/Mx3rJf3OEK
— Thre3 Bucks (@Thre3_Bucks) July 20, 2022
The historic second quarter loss in subscribers follows the surprise loss of 200,000 subscribers earlier this year which led to mass layoffs and substantial budget cuts at the company. Just last month, Netflix laid off 300 employees worldwide, 3 percent of its workforce, and the month prior it axed 150 employees, or 2 percent of its workforce. It also cut back on programming and is making a concerted effort to focus on quality rather than quantity.
"*" indicates required fields
Some of the runaway spending includes “The Gray Man,” a movie starring Ryan Gosling which cost the company $200 million to produce and has received mediocre reviews. On the opposite end, the well-received and popular Stranger Things cost Netflix $30 million per episode for its fourth season.
Shares and subscribership aren’t the only things that have plummeted for Netflix.
Employee morale, especially among those whose compensation is largely based on stock options, is abysmally low, and the poor financial outlook has led key investors such as billionaire Bill Ackman to dump their shares in the company at a loss.
At the core of Netflix’s problem is its programming, which is so “aggressively woke” it has alienated people in “Middle America” who are turned off by progressive indoctrination and relentless leftist fantasy storylines. Some of the content creators and decision-makers include Barack and Michelle Obama, who joined the Netflix team after President Obama’s second term ended and have been creating some of the left-wing programming.
It should come as no surprise that woke programming goes hand-in-hand with woke politics, and Netflix is no exception. According to Breitbart, Netflix executives rank among Hollywood’s biggest Democratic donors, heaping money on far-left politicians including President Joe Biden (D), California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon (D).