Netflix has lost nearly one million subscribers globally between April and July, as viewers in the UK and beyond tighten their belts amid rising living costs. The figure, while lower than the two million the streaming giant had feared, marks its biggest quarterly fall to date and its second consecutive drop in subscriber numbers.
James Leiper, 26, from Huddersfield, was among those who cut Netflix. “I bought a house last year, so I thought I needed to take control of what I was spending, and all the monthly subscriptions added up,” he said. “At one point I had four streaming services and it was a lot of money each month for things I barely used.”
Research firm Kantar found that 700,000 fewer British households now have at least one streaming subscription compared with the start of the year. Younger viewers under 24 are the most likely to cancel, turning to free alternatives like BBC iPlayer or ITV Hub.
TV critic Hayley Campbell, co-host of the BBC Sounds Must Watch podcast, argued that Netflix’s strategy of churning out content has backfired. “I think Netflix is losing numbers because it keeps pumping out endless shows without stopping to check if they're good,” she said, adding that its “ratio of rubbish to brilliant is way off”.
Matthew Rose, 26, from Devon, agreed: “Netflix has great shows like Stranger Things and Squid Game but there's a lot of programmes that aren't high quality. The brand doesn't seem premium any more.” He now only pays for Disney+, accessing most content via YouTube or borrowing his sister’s Netflix account.
Experts note that Netflix faces brutal competition from Disney, Amazon, Apple and others, many of which are pulling their own content from the platform. Combined with a pandemic-induced subscriber boom that has faded and halted productions, the streaming service’s decline appears structural rather than a temporary blip.
