We all knew that the policy of raising prices had to have a negative impact. It’s not possible to continuously raise the price of a service without customers eventually leaving. Some services have been steadily increasing their prices for the last 6 years.
Netflix just announced another price hike. HBO Max stated that with its transformation to MAX, they would raise prices for the second time in two years. Additionally, Disney+ has announced plans for ad-supported tiers and restrictions on account sharing.
All these announcements are against the interests of customers, who end up having to pay more for the same service. These price hikes don’t translate into better conditions, just higher prices.
A customer decline that’s been ongoing all year
The third wave of the Barlovento Communication study in 2023 reports Netflix’s subscriber losses of up to 1.6 million, attributed to their crackdown on shared accounts that began last February.
According to the study, for the second consecutive wave, Amazon’s Prime Video surpasses Netflix and leads the streaming platform rankings, with a 53% household penetration rate.
Netflix holds the second position in the top, with a 46.1% penetration rate. Disney+ (31%), HBO Max (23.5%), and Movistar Plus+ (16.3%) complete the top five streaming services.
Netflix lost 1.6 million users this quarter. They explain that “41.2% of these losses are due to the new account-sharing policy.” It’s important to note that in the first wave of 2023, Barlovento estimated a loss of 2.5 million subscribers; in the second, 3.2 million users, according to their data.
In summary, Netflix has lost 7.3 million subscribers this year. What we don’t know is the number of subscribers it has gained. But indeed, those are significant losses.
The third wave of the 2023 barometer reflects equally concerning data about the state of the sector. 77.6% of Spaniards have access to paid content, marking the lowest streaming platform access rate since 2021.
Furthermore, there have been 4.4 million subscription cancellations in the last four months, primarily due to price increases.
