What is your opinion on Netflix’s sudden change of policy?

[Maura]

Netflix is one of the most popular subscription streaming services and production companies in the US. It offers a library of film ad televsion series through distribution deals as well as its own productions. This service has become incredibly popular all over the world in the past year and it had a very friendly policy: no ads and all the episodes of a new TV Show season would be released at once.

Now, things are starting to change for Netflix. The company plans to change its policy and no longer release episodes of a TV Show season all at once. Starting October, it will release chunks of episoes, on a weekly basis. This has already started with the new season of Stranger Things. The CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, confirmed that the company will soon be running ads for lower-priced subscription tier. This has seem to upset many of its subscribers, who consider that Netflix is earning enough from them paying those subscriptions.

What is your opinion about Netflix’s sudden change of policy?

[Julia]

I believe that the company is slowly losing that “something special” that we all looked forward to. Netflix should think that it has competition from others hat it needs to face and if it’s letting go of what made it stand out, people will see no reason to choose its services and not others. I wouldn’t want to pay for years for “no ads” then have my TV Show interrupted by ads. I am either paying for a service with my money or with my time – so if they are planning to offer free membership, but with ads, I’m in. Otherwise, no thank you.

[Maura]

You have a valid point, Julia! Here in Romania, we have Amazon Prime, HBO Max and other services that are beginning to be more popular. The only difference is that Netflix launches all episodes at once. The other services don’t have ads for paid membership 🙂

[Marianna]

I don’t understand why a company would go against the values and morals that was a part of its identity for so long. I don’t think it ran out of money, not considering how may subscribers it has and also its huge popularity. I think it got greedy and it stopped caring so much about the customer experience.

[István]

My opinion is that a good company always sticks to its promises. I could understand such a decision if Netflix was on the brink of bankruptcy. But it’s not the case.

On the other hand, I don’t know how many people took a look on its share price in the past months. In July 2017, a share price was $150. In October 2021, it was $690. Today, on 1’st July 2022, it’s $176 and it seems to drop even further. With such decisions, I wouldn’t be amazed if it would drop below $100 in half an year. Bad decisions does that to companies. And this, right here, is bad management.

[Julia]

I had no idea about this. It seems that they are not in a good position to upset their subscribers. Which they are at the moment…

[Amy]

Their strategy seems to work with “Stranger Things”. They released the last episodes and their servers couldn’t handle the amount of users who wanted to watch it. The TV Show had the time to make a big hype for the grand FInale of the season…I do not agree with ads. Only time will tell if their decisions are good or not.

[Maura]

I am also watching “Stranger Things” and I was waiting for the last episodes. It was a good marketing strategy but if all TV Shows will use it, I don’t know if it will be the same for them.

[Alex]

I don’t know why they are doing this but its server couldn’t handle it for “Stranger Things”. I am wondering how much they can repeat the same strategy and how will their community react.

[Author]

Posts