The king of entertainment, Netflix has finally been dethroned by a fellow competitor. Can they get back up, or are they just old news?

The popular streaming service has been around for 26 years and has been a household name for all. It was announced that in the second quarter of 2022, Netflix lost around 1.3 million subscribers across the United States, Canada, and Europe. 

After surveying 30 Franklin High School (FHS) students of all grades, it was reported that a large reason for the loss of subscribers is due to the increased competition from other streaming services like Disney+ and Prime Video, as well as a lack of new shows and movies. Seventy percent of the interviewed students found Netflix to be boring due to the removal of shows and movies.

Disney+ has around 161.8 million subscribers. While this number is less than that of Netflix, Disney+ tends to have a larger market value (The amount of which something can be sold on a given market). As Netflix was losing one million subscribers in their first and second quarters, Disney+ added roughly 14 million subscribers to the service. 

A new policy mandated by Netflix stated that you may not share passwords with people not living in the same household. Consequences can include paying extra for more households or being banned from the platform. An anonymous FHS student reported that their cousin, who is going to college, is unable to use the same Netflix account meaning that they would have to pay for a separate account to continue using Netflix. Streaming services like Disney+ and Prime Video have mandated no such policy, which has attracted more subscribers to their services. 

Due to inflation (a general increase of prices and fall in the purchasing value of money), Netflix has also raised its monthly/annual prices, and due to the reasons above, people saw no reason to stick around. Last April, Netflix lost billions of dollars in market cap and hundreds of employees were laid off. Netflix suspects that its subscription base will grow again, but only time will tell.