Netflix is losing more long-term subscribers, according to a survey

According to a study from The Information, more long-term Netflix members are abandoning their subscriptions. According to survey data obtained by the outlet, in the first quarter of 2022, users who had been with the service for more than three years accounted for 13% of cancellations.

The data was obtained by The Information from Antenna, an analytics startup that collects data from 5 million Americans who anonymously reveal their streaming subscriptions. Overall cancellations reached 3.6 million persons last quarter, up from 2.5 million in the previous five quarters, according to the data.

The Information adds that while the number of cancellations has increased, new subscribers account for a smaller percentage of them, indicating that Netflix is struggling to keep users for longer periods of time. People who had joined to the platform for less than a year accounted for 70% of cancellations in the second quarter of 2021, while long-term members accounted for 6%. Last quarter, newer customers accounted for 60% of cancellations.

A few of their colleagues at The Verge who have been with Netflix for years have already given up their subscriptions or are considering it. Despite the fact that you have been (obviously) spoiled and get to use a shared Netflix subscription, You don’t watch it nearly as much as you used to due to its limited collection of series and movies, which you can find on other sites you subscribe to, such as Hulu and Peacock. Not to mention that it cancelled Archive 81, which was one of the few Netflix shows they enjoyed watching — and yes, you have still upset about it.

Plus, as our news editor Richard Lawler correctly points out, Netflix’s “price has risen out of default subscription range, and it’s easily out of ‘forget I even had it’ range” when compared to cheaper, ad-supported plans from rival services like Hulu, which costs only $6.99 / month.

Netflix has had a rocky start in 2022. The streaming giant reported losing 200,000 customers in the first quarter, the first time it has done so in over a decade. Furthermore, Netflix expects losing an additional 2 million customers in the second quarter of 2022. It presently has 74.58 million customers in the United States and Canada.

Netflix’s changing membership count is due to a number of variables. Netflix paused its services in Russia in March owing to the country’s conflict with Ukraine, affecting around one million members. Netflix later upped the price of its basic plan to $9.99 per month (up from $8.99), its standard plan to $15.49 per month (up from $13.99), and its premium tier to $19.99 per month (up from $17.99).

Netflix is expected to make a number of changes in the next year or so, according to reports that the platform wants to debut a cheaper, ad-supported plan this year. Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings has also been vocal about the dangers of password sharing.

In Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, the service is currently testing a feature that allows members to create “sub accounts” for anyone utilising the service outside of their households at a discounted rate. Netflix is also experimenting with livestreaming comedy specials and other unscripted programming. However, if it wants to keep up with Disney Plus, which added 8 million new subscribers last quarter and has announced that both a livestreaming capability and an ad-supported tier are in the works, it may need to do so soon.