Let's chat about the Netflix boom...

We have to, we just simply have to. We need to talk about Netflix. The streaming giant is killing the game when it comes to people’s viewing online.
 
We have some facts that we want to share with you and discuss how the Godfather of streaming perhaps will never be matched. Is this the new normal when it comes to getting your TV and movie fix?

The first few months of 2020 has been an interesting period of time to say the least. We have basically had the shutdown of earth. But do you know what will still be here long after the world has gone to s**t? Cockroaches running around with Netflix on in the background. Yes, that’s right, Netflix will outlive us all – especially on their recent Q1 results!
 
Let’s look at the subscribers first. A staggering 15.8M new paid subscriptions were taken up between January and March for Netflix. This increased their global subscriber numbers to a mammoth 183M worldwide… just let that sink in. For fun’s sake, let’s do some quick maths… if all 183M subscribers have the basic package at $8.99, that will be a monthly intake of $1.6B for the Netflix bosses. Now obviously that’s not cold, hard-earned cash in their back pocket… but I doubt they are struggling to make ends meet!

On top of the Q1 revenue of $5.8B (still wow), they also have 50M more subscribers than another streaming titan in Disney+. The Mickey Mouse company (and this is probably the only time where this doesn’t mean an insult) was also buoyed by the channel launch in the UK too. Netflix really are top of the class.
 
Let’s get onto their shows. Now we want to provide some context for the next couple of numbers we will give you. In Q1 for the ABC network, 8.5M people watched their flagship show The Bachelor on television. For Netflix, that would be pittance! Their new dating show Love is Blind was viewed by 30M accounts in the first three months of the year. Not only this, remember that show Tiger King? That hit the heights of 64M watchers – truly amazing times. This was all before After Life season 2 and Too Hot To Handle was released in April too, so things will only look up for Netflix believe it or not.

Finally, the science bit! Thanks to the annoying and frustrating but necessary lockdown on the majority of the world, this has paid dividends to Netflix as our watch time suggests. After a long day of working at home, or a long day of teaching the kids, or a long day of nothingness – we are quite clearly turning to our Netflix friends. The average session is two hours PER DAY. Yes, that is 120 minutes every day. When you see sums of $40million being paid to talent for their work exclusively, on these numbers alone, you can see how they can afford it.
 
Netflix continues to innovate; push the boundaries and we are clearly loving it as an audience. The beauty of it is that there is something for everyone on the streaming service – it’s the perfect answer to kill time. And with that, we will take our insight elsewhere now. We guess we’ll just go Netflix and chill.
 
Sources: The Verge | Tech Crunch | Business Insider