Netflix, value discrimination, and the Goldilocks zone

Hiroo Onoda was an intelligence officer within the Japanese Imperial Military stationed within the Philippines throughout World Warfare 2. Onodo was knowledgeable that Japan had surrendered by means of leaflets that had been dropped onto the island, however he and his fellow troopers ignored them, believing that they had been Allied propaganda. The Japanese authorities turned conscious of Onoda’s presence on the island and, in March 1974, his former commanding officer traveled to him and relieved him of all duties.

Some streaming companies look like preventing a battle that has already ended. Netflix revealed in its This autumn earnings report final week that it has completed one thing maybe extra essential than subscriber development: ARPU development. For the primary time, Netflix noticed its ARPU within the UCAN (United States + Canada) reporting area exceed the extent at which it sat earlier than the advertising-supported tier was launched in November 2022. As I argue in my Netflix This autumn earnings evaluation, this ARPU development offsets the ARPU decline imposed by the promoting tier. I argue that ARPU development was realized by means of the profitable implementation of value discrimination, achieved by means of a mixture of three ways:

• The password-sharing crackdown, which monetized freeloaders;
• Tier elimination, with the Primary tier being eliminated as an possibility for brand new customers in Q3 2023 and being retired altogether over 2024, beginning with Canada and the UK in Q1;
• Strategic pricing: the Premium and Primary tiers each noticed value will increase in Q3 2023 (the Primary tier was discontinued for brand new account creation however current subscribers had been capable of preserve it).

The shopper pricing calculus now presents customers with a extra streamlined and monetarily compelling alternative: the ad-supported expertise for $6.99 per 30 days, or extra premium choices that embrace the power to share passwords. Netflix has famous beforehand that its Customary with advertisements generates increased ARPU within the US than its Customary tier, implying at the very least $8.51 in promoting ARPU per 30 days.

Earlier this month, Netflix disclosed that the ad-supported tier is now comprised of 23MM MAU, up from the 15MM that the corporate confirmed in November 2023 (which was up from 5MM introduced in Might 2023). The corporate additionally famous on the time that 85% of the ad-supported tier’s subscribers stream for greater than 2 hours per day. Netflix launched 10-, 20-, and 60-second advert placements in November 2023, having launched the promoting tier with simply 15- and 30-second placements, and the ad-supported tier’s FAQ states that customers can anticipate to see 4 minutes of advertisements per hour, on common. Utilizing some assumptions concerning the placement combine within the advert load, I estimate that the corporate serves roughly 11 advertisements per content material hour, or 22 per consumer day at a two-hour consumer common stream time. If the US share of promoting MAU is 70%, the corporate is serving roughly 10.4BN advert impressions per 30 days within the US. In July, the Wall Road Journal reported that Netflix had diminished the CPM it’s asking from manufacturers, to $39-45. Netflix had initially sought a $65 CPM forward of the ad-supported tier’s launch.

So though Netflix was compelled to scale back the CPM it costs advertisers — as I asserted that it could when the ad-supported tier first launched — the corporate has managed to attain ARPU development by means of a mixture of tier streamlining, value will increase, and freeloader monetization (completed by means of password crackdowns and the considerably cheaper, ad-supported tier). And that ARPU development coincides with subscriber base development: Netflix returned to subscriber development in UCAN in This autumn 2022, the quarter wherein its promoting tier was launched, and it returned to ARPU development in the identical area in Q3 2023, when costs had been raised on the Primary and Premium tiers. Netflix’s post-advertising ARPU declines weren’t a drag on the corporate’s industrial fortunes as they had been offset by disproportionate development in subscribers.

The dynamic at play in Netflix’s development is essentially a operate of value discrimination, as I proposed in Advertisements in streaming, differential pricing, and the pursuit of ARPU:

This strategy, by definition, can’t enhance ARPU: whereas it can virtually definitely enhance general subscription numbers, it can add web new subscribers at a lower cost level (and probably cannibalize some current premium subscribers), decreasing general ARPU. This isn’t a nasty technique by itself, but it surely needs to be thought of within the broader scope of the streaming market. Disney is pursuing elevated income with a deliberate try to develop ARPU that very possible received’t lead to web new subscribers; Netflix is pursuing elevated income with a deliberate try to develop its subscriber base that may lower ARPU.

Netflix’s promoting tier is definitely rising shortly — it noticed 70% sequential development in each Q3 and This autumn — however as Netflix factors out in its investor letter, it nonetheless represents 40% of latest subscriptions the place accessible. The 60% of subscriptions represented by the Premium and Customary tiers are essential: the value of the Premium tier was elevated in Q3. So a majority of latest customers are nonetheless not choosing the ad-supported tier, they’re paying extra for the Premium tier than they had been earlier than the introduction of the ad-supported tier, and they’re additionally probably paying $7.99 every for additional seats for the Customary and Premium tiers.

Netflix appears to have settled right into a Goldilocks zone throughout scale, pricing, and catalog administration technique at a time when its opponents are faltering. Netflix’s acquisition of the streaming rights for WWE’s Uncooked program was extensively reported, however that very same week, information of Netflix’s acquisition of the streaming rights for Warner Bros. Discovery’s Intercourse and the Metropolis surfaced. Warner Bros. Discovery broke with longstanding precedent final summer time when it licensed a basket of sequence to Netflix in 2023, together with Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Warner Bros. operates its personal streaming service, Max, the core aggressive positioning of which has at all times been tethered to Warner Bros.’ expansive catalog of IP. The corporate said as a lot explicitly in its most up-to-date earnings name:

One of many massive benefits we have now at Warner Bros. Discovery is that we personal and management all of our content material and storytelling IP and that permits us to distribute it in ways in which maximize attain and profitability. After all, the highest precedence for us is our streaming service Max.

This appears lower than apparent as Warner Bros. Discovery licenses standard exhibits to Netflix. And whereas Max noticed ARPU within the US improve each sequentially and on a year-over-year foundation in Q3 2023, its home subscriber base declined by 2.6% and 1.9%, respectively.

Disney has additionally skilled a change of coronary heart regarding licensing content material to Netflix. Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, revealed after the corporate’s final earnings name that it could increase the catalog of titles that it licenses to Netflix. Disney’s streaming enterprise misplaced $400MM in its This autumn 2023 (reported in November 2023), down from $1.5BN in This autumn 2022 however nonetheless substantial, and with the development seemingly approaching an asymptote.

The tv sequence Fits broke Nielsen’s all-time general streaming report when it appeared on Netflix final summer time, licensed from NBCUniversal, the operator of the Peacock streaming service. Peacock’s income exceeded $1BN for the primary time in This autumn 2023, with its subscriber base rising by roughly 11% sequentially. However the streaming service misplaced “round” $2.75BN in 2023. Considerably infamously, final Might, the corporate acquired the unique rights to air the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins recreation that happened on January thirteenth, 2024 from the NFL for $110MM. Streaming analytics firm Antenna estimates that Peacock amassed 2.8MM new subscriptions over the wild-card weekend, which it describes because the “single greatest subscriber acquisition second ever measured.” The profitability of this deal is doubtful: forward of the sport, Peacock provided a roughly 50% low cost on new annual subscriptions to its ad-supported tier, Peacock Premium. These discounted plans price $29.99 versus $59.99 yearly with out the low cost. Month-to-month, non-discounted subscriptions to Peacock Premium prices $5.99. Assuming that considerably all web new subscriptions associated to the sport had been for the cheaper, ad-supported tier, and never accounting for promoting income, Peacock would wish to maintain these 2.8MM accounts subscribed for greater than 6 months to recuperate its $110MM outlay for the sport.

Netflix’s This autumn outcome, in addition to the altering business dynamics associated to licensing, counsel that Netflix could have compelled its opponents to both license their core IP belongings to it or to embrace an unprofitable arms race for content material acquisition. Netflix generated $1.7BN in working revenue in This autumn 2023 and $10.3BN for the total yr; Netflix can afford to amass content material from the opposite companies which are all struggling to curb working losses.

It is a dangerous proposition for these companies. Netflix has achieved each ARPU and subscriber development in a value discrimination technique that mixes initiatives throughout pricing, promoting, and freeloader monetization. This offers Netflix with content material funding freedom that would finally create a virtuous circle. And Netflix has different monetization alternatives that the opposite streaming companies don’t: particularly, video games, which I consider Netflix could use to increase its promoting enterprise. Content material licensing could show to be an train in “consuming the seed corn” for Netflix’s opponents: Netflix can monetize their IP higher than they will, rising its subscriber base whereas investing in content material adjacencies that it could finally monetize for additional benefit.