Netflix has released its Q3 results for 2019, and in its earnings results the company has admitted that paid net adds could be impacted by the streaming wars.
In the report, after revealing that its guidance forecast for global net adds was almost perfect, with 7.0m predicted and 6.8m actual materialising, Netflix went on to say that their Q4 predictions would be down compared to last Q4.
To be precise, the company said: ‘For Q4, we’re forecasting 7.6m global paid net adds – vs 8.8m last Q4 – with 0.6m in the US and 7.0m for the international segment.’
This figure will, of course, not only impact the Q4 growth year on year, but the full year 2019 paid net adds. Another factor is the Q2 results, where Netflix predicted 5.0m global paid net adds but only received 2.7m. Netflix therefore also said: ‘This implies full year 2019 paid net adds of 26.7m, down from 28.6m last year.’
Netflix went on to explain why 2019 paid net adds would not be up year over year as previously expected, saying that their current forecast reflected factors such as the Q4 content slate, the price changes which had resulted in ‘minor elevated churn’ and finally, ‘new forthcoming competition’.
Major new competitors in the form of Disney+, Apple TV+ and HBO Max will soon be entering the sphere, and with Netflix unable to predict exactly how they will perform alongside their own service, this makes the Q4 results perhaps even more hotly anticipated.
