Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, no one could touch Netflix. It provided a much-preferred alternative to Pay-Per-View, cable TV, and dusty old DVDs. You didn’t need a set-top box, TV, or DVD player. All you needed was the app, $8/month, and a taste for entertainment. The company dominated the streaming service market before there even was a streaming service market. However, things have changed drastically for the company over the years. Over the past couple of months, Netflix has lost more than a million of its subscribers. Sure, that’s chump change compared to the over 220 million that still use the platform, but that number is expected to rise as time goes on. So, what’s the deal?

Why Netflix is dropping subscribers

Right now, Netflix is weathering a “perfect storm” of unfortunate circumstances, and they’re what caused the leak in the company’s boat. It’s a combination of iffy company decisions and a very sad reality that the company needed to eventually come to terms with that’s causing the loss.

The rising price of the service

Over the past couple of years, Netflix has been increasing its monthly prices. Not too long ago, the company raised the price of a four-screen subscription from $17.99/month to $19.99/month. Also, the standard plan rose from $13.99/month to $15.49/month. The basic (one screen, 480p video) plan is $9.99/month. These consistent price hikes are causing people to cancel their subscriptions. While Netflix’s prices are increasing, other streaming services cost less, and their subscription prices stay the same.

Netflix has produced a myriad of original series since House of Cards back in 2013, and some of them have become a cornerstone of the platform. However, it seems that the company is bent on canceling shows that have become crowd favorites. Some shows include The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resurgence, Ozark, Dear White People, Marvel’s Luke Cage, and countless others. This was despite the strong reaction by critics and audiences. This is a bad move on the company’s part seeing as its star child is getting old (along with its cast). Stranger Things has had a great run and it shoveled tons of money into the company. However, that show’s been around for a long time, and it’s not going to be around much longer. Sure, it can rely on future seasons of Squid Game, but the company needs more shows to keep people subscribed in the meantime. Otherwise, people get bored and leave the platform.

The aggressive password-sharing crackdown

This reason, we can say, isn’t entirely Netflix’s fault. The company has been bringing the hammer down on people who share their passwords with other people. Let’s admit it, password sharing is as natural as the air we breathe. If you have any sort of subscription service, chances are that you’re sharing your password with at least one person. And, you know what, Netflix isn’t really in the wrong here. Every person who shares a password costs the company money. With a user base of over 220 million people, you can imagine how much money the company loses if even a quarter of them share passwords. But, the sad reality is that people just don’t like that. Even if Netflix is justified in cracking down on password sharing, people will still be upset with it. Having your account geo-locked to a location and charging people more money a month to share their password is prompting people to cancel their subscriptions left and right. Also, other services aren’t cracking down so hard. Pushing people to get their accounts is having a negative effect.

Competition competition competition

As stated before, no one could touch Netflix back in its prime. This is because the streaming service landscape was a barren desert. This is why so many people flocked to the oasis that was Netflix. But times have changed drastically over the last decade. Now, the number of streaming services available is unreal. We have Tubi, Peacock, ESPN+, Discovery+, Paramount+, BET+, CrunchyRoll, Disney+, Hulu, Pluto TV, Prime Video, HBOMax, Boomerang, Vudu, and Sling, just to name a few. That’s not to mention streaming services from smaller internet companies like Collegehumor’s DROPOUT and Rooster Teeth’s streaming service. There are so many services out there that you can have a full TV-watching experience without actually watching TV. The barren desert is now a lush tropical rainforest, and Netflix is no longer the oasis it once was; now, it’s just a puddle.

Lack of nostalgia

This next reason could tie into the previous one, but it has its own leg to stand on. We are all sentimental for shows and movies from years long past. It’s true that Netflix has provided us with some oldies from our childhood, but the company can not compete with other companies in this regard. Why is that? Where can you watch all of the old Disney movies you used to sing to as a child? Where can you find all of those old Nickelodeon shows from the 90s? How can you find legacy shows like How It’s Made or Animal Planet’s Most Extreme? Not on Netflix! Services like Disney+, Discovery+, Paramount+, and Boomerang have a massive amount of nostalgic content that you can’t find elsewhere. Netflix doesn’t have a reservoir of old first-party content. It can’t compete with the almost 100-year legacies that some companies have. This is why Netflix is focusing on pushing remakes of older content. However, as we’ve seen with the new Resident Evil show, the Richie Rich Show, The Cowboy BeeBop show, and others, there’s always the chance for those to be flops.

Netflix is being picked dry

Continuing the conversation on competition, as more streaming services pop up, their respective parent companies yank their content off of Netflix. This is bad, as the company loses all of the best content that it can show. Thus, this also causes it to rely on making original series and movies.

Can Netflix recover?

The question remains if Netflix will be able to reverse this downfall. While no one can tell the future, most people predict a bleak outcome for the company. Sure, canceling shows and cracking down on password sharing is enough to slow progress, there are some major factors that just can’t be reversed. Back in the day, Netflix was a marvel, it was the first (and only) of its kind. With the click of a mouse, the tap of a finger, or the press of a button, you were the audience to an ocean of exciting content- content that you’d need to pay for cable to watch. This was something that other companies could not provide. You were either tied to your expensive cable package, or you were one of the cool kids with Netflix. Now, however, all of the sparkle and wonder is gone; a streaming service is nothing new. Now, other companies have their own streaming services. What makes things worse is that most of those other companies have a treasure trove of stuff that Netflix just doesn’t have. They have a reservoir of old treasured content or they offer a robust library of content for free. Netflix’s original plan was bound to fail because it was based on it being the only kid on the block. If the company continues with this formula, then there’s no way that it will be able to recover. It will need to find a way to change course before it shipwrecks.