How Did the Pandemic Affected Netflix?

COVID-19 pandemic has brought a surge in demand for online entertainment like Netflix. On average, adults spent 40% of their waking hours in front of a screen since lockdowns started and subscription streaming has even doubled during April.

BBC reported that adults tend to spend on average six hours and 25 minutes per day using their gadgets or staring at screens. Last year, it was only about 31%, which is lesser compared to the data this 2020.

People tend to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ every for at least one hour, and an additional 12 million people joined a subscription which they had not used previously. 

Despite that boost during lockdowns, how is Netflix faring after the lockdowns are lifted, and people started going back to their routines? Here are the top five ways that the pandemic has changed Netflix, according to a report from the BBC.

1. Pandemic streaming party is over

The latest results on the number of new subscribers of Netflix from the last three months to September 30  was only 2.2 million after as the surge for demand during the pandemic faded. It was below the prediction of Netflix in July which is 2.5 million which sends their shares down by 5% in after-hours trade.

PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore declared that "the pandemic streaming party has come to an end." Despite that, Netflix reminded its investors that they still managed to have a record number of 34 million new subscribers this 2020 or a total of 200 million subscribers.

2. Netflix's most popular title for the quarter

This quarter, the most popular title in Netflix is Charlize Theron's The Old Guard which bagged over 78 million households during the first four weeks of its debut.

Meanwhile, Enola Homes, Project Power, and The Kissing Booth 2 were also popular with 76 million, 75 million, and 66 million viewers. Like The Old Guard, they were also popular titles during the first four weeks of their debut.

But as usual, these figures are only a small part of Netflix's total viewing counts as they include more than two minutes of viewing in their tally.

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3. International subscribers eclipsed the US market

Netflix's international subscribers have already surpassed those in the United States. In the Asia Pacific, Netflix had recorded more than one million new subscribers or almost half of its sign-ups.

According to the firm, they now claim a "double-digit" share of broadband-connected homes in South Korea and Japan but most of its revenue per user is still in the US so it is important to retain its market in the country. Netflix assured its investors that compared last year, "retention remains healthy and engagement per member household was up solidly."

4. Netflix benefits from the struggles of cinema operators

Due to the lockdowns, this pandemic, television and movie productions were also suspended so a lot of entertainment has focused online and Netflix provides its viewers the perfect online entertainment. This also allowed them to retain their subscribers benefiting from the struggles of cinema operators, according to  Sophie Lund-Yates an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Netflix has already recorded $790 million in quarterly profit and an increase in revenue that is more than expected to $6.4 billion dollars because of the appreciation of the euro against the dollar. Added with the temporary slowdown of movie and tv productions, Netflix's profit margin has even increased.

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