NETFLIX Q2 SUBSCRIBER LOSS WIDENS, BUT NOT AS MUCH AS FEARED

Netflix shed almost 1 million subscribers during the spring amid tougher competition and soaring inflation that’s squeezing household budgets, heightening the urgency behind the video streaming service’s effort to launch a cheaper option with commercial interruptions.

The April-June contraction of 970,000 accounts, announced this week as part of Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report, is by far the largest quarterly subscriber loss in the company’s 25-year history. It could have been far worse, though, considering Netflix management released an April forecast calling for a loss of 2 million subscribers during the second quarter.

Netflix was probably spared from deeper losses by the ongoing popularity of “Stranger Things,” its science fiction/horror series that debuted in 2016. Following the release of the series’ fourth season in late May, Netflix said, viewers watched a total of 1.3 billion hours of it over the next four weeks — more than any other English-language series in the service’s history.

The less severe loss in subscribers, combined with an outlook calling for a return to growth in the July-September period. helped lift Netflix’s battered stock by 7% in extended trading after the numbers came out.

Netflix’s April-June regression follows a loss of 200,000 subscribers during the first three months of the year, marking the first time Netflix’s subscriber totals have shrunk in consecutive quarters since its transition from offering DVD-by-mail rentals to video streaming began 15 years ago.