MNTN CEO Mark Douglas Joins ‘The Exchange’ To Discuss Netflix Subscriber Loss and Potential Ad-Supported Tier

2 Min Read

MNTN president Mark Douglas joined ‘The Exchange’ with Needham analyst Laura Martin, and Molly Wood, Launch managing director, to discuss the Netflix saga and what’s next for the streaming giant. They covered Netflix’s recent loss of over 200,000 subscribers in Q1—a huge discrepancy from the 2.7 million added subscribers that analysts had projected. Netflix cited competition, inflation, and password sharing as the reason for that loss. 

During Netflix’s earnings call this week, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings expressed that they are now looking into adding an ad-supported tier for customers looking for a lower-price point on their content. But according to Laura Martin, this change might not be coming soon enough, “They need to innovate faster. They should not be the last advertising platform to be adding an ad-supported tier”

Mark Douglas had a more optimistic view of the streaming giant’s future, stating that it will take some time to introduce advertising into the platform, but it will ultimately be worth it. “If Netflix brings in a price point that’s on the level of a cup of coffee in New York City, there’s a huge round of new consumers who are going to go onto Netflix.” Douglas added that Netflix is also the first streaming company to go after password sharing, and have an opportunity to increase their customer base by almost a third just by adding a tier for those subscribers.

For the rest of the discussion, watch the above video.