Netflix loses nearly a million subscribers in the second quarter, plans to launch cheap advertising memberships

Today, Netflix released its Season 2 earnings report showing that it lost 970,000 subscribers in Season 2, 2022 – a number well below their own prediction of losing 2 million subscribers.

The company also said it would add 1 million net subscribers in the third quarter, a figure slightly below Wall Street’s expectations, but investors were apparently pleased with the results, with Netflix shares rising 8 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday.

In April, Netflix disclosed that it had lost 200,000 subscribers, after which its share price plummeted.

Even with the loss of subscribers, Netflix reported a profit of $1.4 billion for Season 2, up from $1.3 billion a year earlier. Revenue rose about 8.6 percent year-over-year to $7.9 billion.

Netflix said, “In its first four weeks, ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 reached 1.3 billion hours of view time, making it our hottest English-language series ever.”

For good measure, Netflix wrote in its shareholder letter that it expects to introduce a lower-priced tier of subscribers around early 2023, a discounted package that will be supported by advertising.

Last week it was reported that Netflix would be partnering with Microsoft ( MSFT ) to build this new advertising layer. netflix said, “they are investing heavily to expand their multi-billion dollar advertising business into premium TV video.”

Netflix also talked about outlawing password sharing, and they said that more than 100 million households are currently on a one-person membership for the whole family.

“We know this will be a change for members, and our goal is to find an easy-to-use pay-to-play sharing product that can be launched in 2023.”

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