Netflix may be suffering the consequences of alienating conservatives.
Late last week, Netflix announced its subscriber base in the United States had declined for the first time since 2011.
The streaming giant had forecast a gain of 300,000 during the second quarter (April through June), but instead it lost about 130,000 homes here. Thanks to international growth, Netflix still added 2.7 million customers overall, pushing its global base to a record 151 million. But even that wasn’t entirely good news: Netflix had told investors it expected to gain about 5 million new customers in the quarter, making this its biggest missed forecast since 2016.
So what’s behind this gloomy quarter for the company?
Netflix blames the decline on its most recent price increase. But, for more than a year now, Netflix has made controversial moves that undeniably alienated a large portion of its U.S. subscribers: conservatives.
Could that be what's really hurting the streaming giant??