Once Netflix started its plan to crack down on password-sharing in May, the video streamer started to add new subscribers. A report in BroadbandTV News cited stats from Antenna which revealed that after a 12.9% decline in the number of gross additions to its U.S. subscriber list in April, Netflix saw that figure rise 27.8% in May and an incredible 128.9% in June. July showed a 25.7% drop off in U.S. gross additions.
Still, the company did manage to add 2.6 million U.S. subscribers in July after signing up 3.5 million in June. Since the beginning of the crackdown in May, Netflix has added 7.5 million U.S. subscribers which seems to indicate that the company has done a good job in convincing password borrowers that they still want to watch the platform’s content even if they have to pay for it with their own money.
It should be noted that in July, 23% of those subscribing to Netflix in the States chose the ad-supported tier of service called Standard with ads which is priced at $6.99 per month. Just a few movies and television shows are unavailable with this subscription tier and two supported devices can view content at a time, which is streamed in Full HD. In June, 19% of gross additions selected this tier. The percentage of U.S. gross additions that signed up for the Standard with ads service during July was the highest since Netflix started offering an ad-supported service in November.
Was the huge surge in U.S. gross additions in June a one-time aberration?
Netflix no longer offers the basic ad-free service in the U.S. which means that besides the ad-supported tier, U.S. Netflix subscribers can choose between Standard and Premium. Priced at $15.49 monthly, Standard includes unlimited ad-free movies, TV shows, and mobile games and can be used by two supported devices at a time. Content is streamed in Full HD and one person who doesn’t live with the subscriber can be added for $7.99 per month.
The Premium service, which costs $19.99 per month, includes unlimited ad-free movies, TV shows, and mobile games and four supported devices can use the service at a time. Content is streamed in Ultra HD, Netflix spatial audio is included, and six supported devices can download content for offline viewing. Up to two extra members who don’t live with the subscriber can be added for $7.99 per month per subscriber.
Discussing the elimination of its old Basic package, Netflix wrote, “We’ll be interested to see how this impacts the composition of Netflix subscriptions and sign-ups overall in the coming months.” For the quarter that ended June 30, Netflix doubled projections by adding 5.9 million subscribers worldwide bringing its total globally to 238.3 million.
Meanwhile, some of the new content on Netflix includes PainKiller, a series about the Sackler family and how it pushed doctors to prescribe its Oxycontin painkiller. The second season of Heartstopper also recently dropped on the platform.
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