Netflix Cuts Subscriber Outlook by One Million

[froggyboy604]

Netflix today said that it expects to end the third quarter with about 24 million subscribers, which is about 1 million below the previous guidance.

ZoomBack in July, the company predicted that it would exit Q3 with 25 million subscribers total (22 million of them using its streaming service, 15 million using DVD by mail and 12 million using both options). The revised guidance now forecasts 24 million subscribers (21.8 million streaming accounts, 14.2 million DVD by mail accounts and 12 million people using both).

At the end of Q2, Netflix reported 25.6 million subscribers. Netflix said that its financial guidance remains the same, as increased revenue is apparently padding the subscriber shortfall. Netflix said that the company's leadership still believes that the splitting of DVD by mail and its streaming service (and the resulting price increase) was the right decision.

"We know our decision to split our services has upset many of our subscribers, which we don’t take lightly, but we believe this split will help us make our services better for subscribers and shareholders for years to come," the company stated.

Netflix recently also confirmed that it will lose content from Starz Entertainment in February 2012, which has been its most extensive source of streaming content since 2008. Earlier this year, Netflix lost content provided by Sony.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/netflix-q3-guidance-subscribers,news-12550.html

I guest more people rather just stick to subscribing to Digital Cable where you can order more channels, or watch movie channels and niche category channels like Funimation, Commedy Central, G4TV, Spike, Playboy TV, ESPN and other shows rather then browsing Netflix, and worry about lack of selection

 

[Demon_Skeith]

I think it's because they raised their prices so much during the year.

 

[froggyboy604]

Indeed, the price hikes can be a reason, but I read online that the selection of movies, TV shows, and other videos are also not as good because of companies like HBO, Sony, etc no longer want to give NetFlix the right to stream their shows since Sony fells NetFlix isn't making enough money for them.

I also bet Sony, and HBO might come out with their own streaming services to compete with NetFlix.

There are also Niche Category Streaming services like CrunchyRolls which stream Anime, Japanese Drama, Korean Dramas, Chinese Dramas, and music videos in HD for about the same cost of Netflix.

 

[Demon_Skeith]

there is also red box which I am sure is taking a bite out of their subscribers.

 

[froggyboy604]

I agree, the good thing about Red Box is you don't need a fast internet connection to use it since you rent DVDs at a DVD machine, and DVDs won't slow down your internet connection like NetFlix.

I think Canada, and the parts of the US with limited bandwidth Internet Service Providers are also making Netflix sales figures down since a lot of people in Canada just has 60GB of bandwidth or less a month of downloads before they start paying super high overage fees like 1 dollar per GB over the 60GB.