On paper, everything is going well for the big streaming platforms. Netflix’s latest quarterly results are also there to attest to this. The service has gained more than 5 million customers in the last three months and it now has 282.7 million subscribers globally.
Since 2022, the company has gained 60 million subscribers. But these brilliant statistics displayed by these entertainment giants should not blind us and this is what we will try to understand better.
A very worrying drop in perceived quality
After what some observers saw as a golden age of series over the last 20 years, the general public now feels a decline in the quality of programs offered by the major platforms. According to a study published in October by TiVo, which surveyed 4,490 people in the United States and Canada, the percentage of subscribers satisfied with the quality of content on video-on-demand services is decreasing.
In detail, 78.6% of the public estimated that these platforms offered “moderate to very good” content to watch in the second quarter of 2022, this percentage is 74.5% in the second quarter of 2024.
It’s even worse for offers financed by advertising which currently only collect 60.8%. The concern is all the greater as this is precisely the type of subscription on which the entertainment giants intend to focus.
Rising prices, falling investments
While Netflix, Disney+ and all their rivals carry out regular price increases and the movement is not ready to stop, Variety has for its part calculated that the main streaming services should invest less in their content between 2023 and 2026 than between 2019 and 2023.
If customers pay more and more for a product that they judge more and more negatively, dissatisfaction may quickly appear on the horizon. According to a study conducted last year by CivicScience, 39% of Netflix subscribers said they would be willing to cancel their subscription if the company increases the price of its ad-supported offering.
Piracy reinforced by the errors of Netflix and its rivals?
Consumers have endured previous price increases, just as they have tolerated the end of account sharing. In the short term, all this has resulted in glowing figures for the services concerned, but this may come at a cost in the future.
In a recent article, our colleagues from Forbes recalled in this regard that the massive increase in cable subscription prices in the United States ended up encouraging customers to unsubscribe and turn to the platforms. Today, this legal alternative does not exist. Distraught, Internet users could turn to an option that has never been so popular: illegal streaming and IPTV platforms.
