Yesterday Netflix announced it lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years. The company reported 200,000 fewer subscribers in its latest quarter–well below the expected numbers, which weren’t high to begin with. The street was expecting an anemic growth of about 2.5 million subscribers.
Several reasons have been batted around for the subscriber fall. Netflix blamed password sharing as a big reason for fewer subscribers. Analysts also cited inflation–with prices rising everywhere, households are cutting back on what they consider non-essential services. And of course, Netflix users themselves were vocal on social media, citing Netflix’s recent price rises as a reason subscribers were abandoning the service.
The loss of subscribers has seen Netflix (NFLX) stock tank. As of the time of this writing, it’s down over 27% in pre-market trading. However, the fall of NFLX stock appears to have had a knock-on effect on the shares of companies that own other video streaming services. As of the time of this writing, almost all of the owners of the following video streaming services are down in pre-market trading. The name of the streaming service is listed followed by the owner’s stock ticker.
- Disney Plus (DIS): –5.18%
- HBO Max, CNN+, etc (WBD): –4.29%
- Paramount+ (PARA): –5.68%
- Amazon Prime (AMZN): –0.56%
- Apple TV Plus (AAPL): +0.16%
As you can tell from the numbers, there’s a vast difference between Amazon and Apple, and the rest of the companies that own video streaming services. That’s likely because Apple’s Apple TV Plus and Amazon’s Prime Video are relatively minor revenue drivers for both companies, which are well diversified among myriad sectors.
However, video streaming for Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount, and Disney are much more important to each company’s future revenue growth. Finally, shares of Roku (ROKU) are also down 6.3% in pre-market trading. The fall of Roku’s stock could signify jitters among investors who fear a fall in streaming services subscriber numbers will lead to fewer hardware sales of streaming devices.
