With its program, the American streaming service Netflix reliably causes a stir: The South Korean series “Squid Game”, for example, inspired viewers worldwide and was the number one topic of conversation for a long time. In German-speaking countries, “Kitz” recently caused a sensation, a serial story about young and rich people in the ski resort of Kitzbühel. And starting this weekend, Netflix is showing the lavish historical thriller “Munich – In the View of War”, about the desperate and ultimately futile attempt by England and France in 1938 to dissuade Adolf Hitler from his murderous course of war.
For a long time, Netflix only went up – in view of the constant flow of new content and also thanks to the pandemic. The influx was so great that the streaming world market leader has been able to raise prices twice since the outbreak of the pandemic and still significantly increase the number of users to more than 220 million. But now there is a sensitive setback.
On Friday night, Netflix surprisingly gave a pretty dark outlook. For the current quarter, Netflix expects only 2.5 million new customers. The company thus remained well below the forecasts of the analysts – and also well below the figures for the quarter from October to December. Thanks to hits like “Squid Game”, the number of worldwide customers rose by 8.3 million to a total of almost 222 million. Quarterly sales rose 16 percent to $7.7 billion. The profit grew by around twelve percent to 607 million dollars.
To be continued: The Netflix series “Squid Game” inspired viewers worldwide.
(Photo: Netflix/AP)
Now investors are deeply disappointed. Netflix shares temporarily lost more than 20 percent on Friday, and other media stocks also lost. Netflix justifies the bad outlook with fewer planned streaming premieres, among other things. On Friday, however, it was also announced that “Squid Game” would be continued. “The universe of ‘Squid Game’ has only just begun,” Ted Sarandos, Netflix co-head, was quoted as saying. The thoroughly controversial thriller series was watched in 142 million households in the first four weeks after it started last fall.
At the same time, Netflix is facing increasing competition. Disney plus, Hulu and HBO Max in the USA are upgrading, and new providers are constantly being added, with Apple and Amazon tackling Netflix. In Germany, for example, RTL is also relying heavily on the streaming boom. The large streaming offer is depressing the number of subscribers. Budgets are limited, households can only afford a certain number of subscriptions. On the downside, costs are rising: Providers are also competing with Netflix for content, driving up script and production prices.