On its website, Netflix informs customers that those with an “active account” may be on a “price guarantee”, though they should view their billing page for more details.
Advertisement
This is a quick turnaround when just past year Netflix’s chief product officer Neil Hunt said that he thought offline content offered consumers too much choice and opened doors for abuse.
Looking at Netflix’s stock on Tuesday, you could reasonably think the streaming service wasn’t doing very well.
From January to the end of March, Netflix added 6.7-million subscribers, bringing its worldwide total to 81.5-million. (NFLX – Analyst Report) plunged 7.8% in the after-hours session despite the earnings beat in the first quarter of 2016.
Hastings, who predicted that Amazon would eventually launch a stand-alone subscription service years ago, took the news that Amazon did just that this week in stride.
Barton Crockett, an FBR analyst who covers Netflix, in a note that the latest results marked the peak of the company’s subscriber growth, and that the momentum looks likely to slow from here on out.
Industry analysts pointed to increase in competition in video streaming as the reason for the slowdown, with Amazon’s Prime Video service, Sky’s Now TV, and the range of on-demand and online store all fighting with Netflix for market share.
Hastings said the initial sign-up was limited in some countries as the service offers content in English language and does not accept local payment options.
Netflix fans could soon have the feature they’ve been waiting for – offline playback.
At least with the new month to month setup if you’re not entirely sold on the service or you’ve managed to watch all of the shows you were intending to watch, you can bail on the service and maybe come back at a later time.
In a statement Netflix observed: “Our global forecast for fewer net adds than prior year is due to a tough comparison against the Australia/New Zealand launch”.
“We are rolling this out slowly over the year, rather than mostly in May, so we can learn as we go”, the company said in a statement.
Advertisement
The company will start boosting rates for more than half of its U.S. members from May.
