Netflix might have star-studded casts and award-winning programming, but its redeemable qualities have done little to stop users from cancelling subscriptions. ❌
The company’s Q4 earnings (reported today) hit analysts’ revenue figure on the dot and bested earnings by double-digits. Netflix even beat analyst estimates for subscriber additions in the quarter, adding 8.28 million subscribers. Q4 is often Netflix’s hottest time of year, which is part of the reason for the strong figures. 💰
With that in mind, Netflix now has 221.8 million subscribers. But there’s a problem: the company expects lousy subscriber growth in Q1 2022 compared to the same period in 2021.
Netflix indicates that it expects to add just 2.5 million subscribers in Q1 2022, compared to the 3.98 million added over the comparable period in 2021. Analysts were looking for 7.25 million new subscribers in Q1 2022.
The outlook comes days after Netflix announced that it would raise prices. 📈 The streaming service will now offer its standard tier plan for $15.50/mo and its most expensive plan for $20/mo. It’s the company’s third price hike since 2019.
These price hikes are necessary to maintain Netflix’s beefy catalog… and to pay down debts and costs. The company raised some $16 billion in debt to pay for content over the years, only swearing off reliance on debt a year ago.
With all that said, investors are concerned (and they’re not sticking around.) 👋 $NFLX fell more than 19% in after-hours.