Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters nodded to slowdown in U.S. viewing and ad sales that spurred the radical shake-up of the streamer’s content leadership during Tuesday’s conversation with Wall Street analysts after its third-quarter earnings release. Sarandos and Peters had to address the situation that led to the dramatic decision to oust chief content officer Bela Bajaria and film chief Dan Lin. Former Fox and Disney executive Peter Rice was appointed Oct. 15 as Bajaria’s successor, starting next week.
Peters sought to assure analysts that while Netflix is going through a soft period in the U.S., its underlying fundamentals are strong. As ever, when the going gets tough in pay TV, executives point to positive signs when it comes to churn — or the lack thereof. Peters emphasized that the churn rate of subscribers moving on and off the platform was better than expected in the U.S. and elsewhere for the quarter, especially after the streamer initiated a price hike.
Peters emphasized that “the quality, quantity and variety of viewing remains healthy and it drives our business model. And the best evidence that we’ve got that we’re delivering that value is churn. We’ve got healthy retention in every region,” he said.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, the level of churn improved on a global basis and in the U.S. And those recent price changes that we did, including in the United States, have gone well. We’ve seen results that are consistent with past changes,” Peters said.
Most of the regions outside the U.S. delivered strong viewing and engagement, he added. And you can see how our business model works here. We specifically highlighted India, which had a strong slate with a couple titles really, really performing.
And as a result, view hours in Q3 in India grew 24% on an absolute basis,” Peters said. We’re focusing on that execution,” Sarandos said. And when you look to [Europe, the Middle East and Africa], when we look to the Nordics, which is a very mature market for us, that content slate is killing it there.
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