Too Much TV: Your TV Talking Points For Tuesday, April 19th, 2022
Like everyone else in Hollywood, I have some thoughts about Netflix...
Here's everything you need to know about the world of television for Tuesday, April 19th, 2022.
NETFLIX POSTS SUBSCRIBER LOSS IN Q1
Netflix said on Tuesday that it lost 200,000 net subscribers for the first quarter ended March 31st. The subscription streaming VOD service had projected a net sub growth of 2.5 million. The company ended the quarter with 221.64 million subscribers, down from 221.84 million in Q4 of 2021. It is also estimating a loss of up to two million subscribers in Q2, which would be the company's first-ever back-to-back quarterly subscriber losses.
Digging deeper into the Q1 numbers, while Netflix added 1.06 million households in the Asia-Pacific region, it lost about 640,000 in the U.S. and Canada, 350,000 in Latin America and around 300,000 in Europe and the Middle East.
In the company's letter to shareholders, it took aim at subscribers who share passwords, saying that as many as 100 million accounts worldwide share passwords, including about 30 million in the United States and Canada. The percentage of households sharing passwords hasn't changed in recent years, but the company did say that password sharing did provide a growth opportunity moving forward.
"This is a big opportunity as these households are already watching Netflix and enjoying our service," the company wrote in its letter. "Sharing likely helped fuel our growth by getting more people using and enjoying Netflix. And we’ve always tried to make sharing within a member’s household easy, with features like profiles and multiple streams. While these have been very popular, they’ve created confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared with other households."
While the company highlights cracking down on password sharing as a possible growth driver, the shareholder letter also discusses the need to create more great content - which I suspect is the goal of every streaming service. The shareholder letter also discusses the importance of subscriber growth outside of the U.S. and Canada:
Over the longer term, much of our growth will come from outside the US. Traditionally, US entertainment companies have viewed “international” as an export market for US content. But we saw long ago that great stories can be made anywhere and loved everywhere - dramatically broadening the pool of creators with whom we can work, increasing the variety of our programming and better serving local tastes. To support this, we’ve been building out capabilities like creative development, personalization, and language presentation/localization. Netflix is now producing films and TV in more than 50 countries with a high degree of integration in the local entertainment ecosystem resulting in the creation of blockbusters from every region. In fact, three out of our six most popular TV seasons of all time are non-English language titles: Squid Game, La Casa de Papel Part 4 and All Of Us Are Dead, which launched in Q1’22 and has accumulated 561m hours viewed in its first four weeks. So an important focus is working to extend our lead in this area.
This isn't a great earnings report, but it's not as horrific as some of the headlines might lead you to believe. Netflix would have added 500,000 subscribers in the quarter if you exclude the 700,000 subscribers it lost when it shut down services in Russia. Which isn't great, but it's also not the streaming apocalypse that some analysts are predicting.
I find that anytime I say anything even remotely positive about Netflix, I have media analysts suggesting that I'm in the tank for Netflix or that I am a Netflix "bull." I have real questions about some of Netflix's strategic decision making. But I also feel as if some of the "Netflix is in trouble" comments are similar to the ones that come out anytime some celebrity turns out to have done something terrible. "Oh, I never thought Eric Clapton was that great of a guitarist" is not that far from "Netflix needs to produce less crap."
The biggest takeaway from the day might be the possible addition of an ad-supported version of Netflix. The move has been pushed heavily by stock analysts who follow the company and in comments during the investor webcast, co-founder/co-CEO Red Hastings raised the possibility the company might be seriously considering the idea. “Those that have followed Netflix know that I’ve been against the complexity of advertising and a big fan of the simplicity of subscription,” Hastings said. “But as much as I’m a fan of that, I’m a bigger fan of consumer choice. And allowing consumers who would like to have a lower price and are advertising-tolerant, get what they want, makes a lot of sense.”
Those comments leave a lot of unanswered questions. For one thing, what Hastings sees as an ad-supported version of Netflix and what industry analysts are picturing are likely two different things. My suspicion is that an ad-supported tier of Netflix would exclude the newest titles and would limit the number of concurrent streams. But I can see a scenario in which Netflix combines a crackdown on password sharing with a cheaper, ad-supported service in hopes of capturing some of the budget-minded consumers who are reluctant to pay full price for the service.
And while I am no conspiracy theorist, I can also see a scenario in which Netflix executives are purposefully bearish on the Q2 subscriber numbers, then when the losses are less than expected, executives can push off the ad-supported service by claiming that subscriber numbers are stabilizing and it's no longer needed.
One last thought. Given that Netflix is facing pressure to lessen its content spend, I believe the company should heed the same advice I gave yesterday to Warner Bros Discovery head David Zaslav. Netflix currently struggles to effectively surface and promote all of its new content. Particularly content produced in other regions. Being more effective on the PR and marketing side would provide value both to the subscribers as well as the company. It's wasteful to produce content that goes unnoticed and the fact that so many Netflix producers continue to hire their own PR teams to help promote their new shows illustrates the depth of the problem.
ABC HAS RENEWED 'THE GOLDBERGS' FOR A TENTH SEASON
ABC has picked up another season of The Goldbergs, which is an interesting decision given the challenges surrounding the exit of series star Jeff Garlin. Producers glossed over his absence in the later episodes of this season with a combination of stand-ins and camera trickery. But with the show being renewed, it seems likely a more permanent solution will be found to deal with the absence of his character from the show next season:
The renewal arrives a month after star and exec producer Wendi McLendon-Covey signed a new deal to return with producers Sony Pictures Television. The pact, which sources note includes an option for an 11th season, included a sizable pay bump.
Before McLendon-Covey’s new deal, The Goldbergs was strongly on the bubble despite its ranking as the longest-running live-action comedy currently airing on broadcast. The show has had a challenging ninth season and had to write in the death of George Segal (who played the beloved Pops) and is currently working around the departure of star Jeff Garlin.
Garlin, who played patriarch Murray Goldberg, exited in December following an HR investigation that stemmed from multiple complaints over his behavior on the set of the comedy. Sources at the time described the decision as a mutual one between Garlin and Sony. At the time, he was not expected to return for the potential and now-confirmed 10th season.
TWEET OF THE DAY
ODDS AND SODS
* Candace Cameron Bure signs agreement with GAC Media
* NBC has announced the first round of 'Billboard Music Awards' performers.
WHAT'S NEW FOR TUESDAY
Here's a quick rundown of all the new stuff premiering today on TV and streaming:
Battle Kitty (Netflix)
Black-ish Series Finale (ABC)
Deadliest Catch Season Premiere (Discovery)
Deadliest Catch: Bloodlines Season Premiere (Discovery)
Mayans M.C. Season Premiere (FX)
New Amsterdam (NBC)
Pacific Rim: The Black Season Two Premiere (Netflix)
Pattrn Series Premiere (Weather Channel)
Shauntay Henderson: Most Wanted (Reelz)
The Black Widow Perrion Roberts (Reelz)
30 For 30: Shark (ESPN)
White Hot: The Rise & Fall Of Ambercrombie & Fitch (Netflix)
Click Here to see the list of all of the upcoming premiere dates for the next few months.
SEE YOU WEDNESDAY!
If you have any feedback, send it along to Rick@AllYourScreens.com and follow me on Twitter @aysrick.