There is a lot of discussion among investors and fans about Netflix’s future at the moment.
Binge-watching, i.e. watching all episodes of a season or series in one go, has become big thanks to Netflix. This is mainly due to the fact that the streaming provider has always released entire seasons or even newly licensed series in one fell swoop. However, experts see a problem for the company in the release model, which is still unusual today.
Whether Netflix should change the release model and switch to a weekly release for series, for example, is currently being hotly debated by experts on the news site CNBC discussed. The background to the discussion is that Netflix has been having a hard time since the beginning of the year and probably needs a new strategy to make investors and viewers happy.
Since the beginning of the year, Netflix stock has fallen a little more than 70 percent from just under $600 a share to currently around $173. The number of subscribers also fell by 200,000 for the first time in the first quarter. Additionally, Netflix predicts that they will lose around 2 million users worldwide in the second quarter.
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Those are the problems of the binge release
The binge or complete release of series is also rather unusual among streaming providers. Competitors like Disney+ also publish series on the Internet on a weekly basis, i.e. one episode per week. According to experts, the advantage of this strategy is that viewers are kept longer and there is a greater chance of becoming aware of other content.
This is also the second major point of criticism from the experts: With the binge releases, Netflix needs a lot more good series because they only entertain for a short time. Michael Prachter, an analyst at investment firm Wedbush says:
With Netflix, it’s super easy to join for three to six months and then leave for three to six months. When ‘Stranger Things’ is over and ‘Ozark’ is over, what then?
By implication, he’s saying that Netflix can’t keep its subscribers long enough and is losing viewers who may not come back for the next big series. In order to motivate subscribers for longer, the provider’s game catalog is also slowly expanding:
Netflix Games:
All games that you will receive as a subscription in 2022
Europe YouTuber agrees
The well-known Europe YouTuber David Hain recently commented on the subject in a video. In the video he explains many aspects of the Netflix crash, but also addresses the delayed releases. In his opinion, we will see these more often on Netflix in the near future:
link to YouTube content
As David mentions, there was already a delayed release with the latest season of Stranger Things, which was split into two blocks. According to CNBC, however, this is due to the pandemic, as there were delays in production.
Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that Netflix will like a staggered release and that we will see more split seasons in the future.
Netflix has not commented on the issue
Netflix itself has so far not commented on the subject, even when asked by CNBC. It is therefore still unclear whether there will be a change to the release model in the future. However, the streaming service has already spoken openly about measures with which it wants to counteract the downward trend. So there should soon be a cheaper subscription, which is financed by advertising.
Do you prefer the binge release model or would you prefer a staggered release of series in either blocks or weekly episodes? Your opinion matters!
