It appears that dark clouds loomed over the video streaming services last month. According to a research note by Bank of America citing data from Sensor Tower, there was a 4% aggregate drop in downloads and monthly active users (MAU) during April, Reuters reports.
Speaking of individual numbers, for Netflix, there was a decline of 6% in downloads and 8% in MAU, respectively. The number of downloads for Disney+ dropped by 26% and MAU by 10%. On the other hand, Warner Bros Discovery tasted success with about 11.8 million downloads and 48.6 million MAUs, achieving both year-on-year and month-on-month growth.
As per the report, some analysts are attributing the slowdown in growth to a decline in demand after the pandemic-era boom and saturation in several markets, especially in the US.
Moreover, the competitive fire ignited by Netflix has motivated more streaming services to initiate password-sharing crackdowns and offer cheaper ad-supported versions. Something that could be seen as a "weakness" and might deflect customers.
Streaming companies are also investing in international expansion, sports streaming, and raising the prices of their services, the report said.
Netflix, an early mover in the password-sharing crackdown, managed to add over 9 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2024. This came after it increased the prices for some of its plans last year, with the Premium subscription now costing $22.99/mo in the US.
Its starting price in the US is now $6.99/mo for the Standard with ads plan, which the company defended by saying that it's "extremely competitive with other streamers" and "much less than the average price of a single movie ticket."
Netflix started turning every stone a few years back when it missed growth forecasts and its subscriber count fell for the first time in a decade. It was reported that about a million subscribers said goodbye to the company between April and June 2022, although, it was on track to recovery.
Source: Reuters
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