Netflix crosses the milestone of 10 million subscribers in France

New step for Netflix in France. In an interview given to Sunday newspaper (JDD), the co-CEO of the American streaming giant, Ted Sarandos, revealed that the platform now has more than 10 million paying subscribers in France, compared to 6.7 million in 2020 and 5 million in 2019. It had been two years since the Los Gatos firm had communicated on this data.

However, a sign that Netflix accepts less and less the sharing of accounts, Ted Sarandos does not evoke subscribers but homes. “A household representing five counts, the number [d’utilisateurs] is therefore even higher., he estimated. Before adding: “About 100 million people watch us without paying. Customers who share their passwords with others will have to pay a little more to continue doing so. It will be gradual.”

Ted Sarandos calms the game in the middle of a storm

It must be said that the time is not to celebrate in the ranks of the American group. At the end of April, the announcement of the loss of 200,000 subscribers acted as the real detonator of a crisis whose final repercussions are not yet known. Under pressure, the leading market platform has gone into panic mode: series deleted, projects nipped in the bud, depressed employees, or even the imminent arrival of advertising… The icing on the cake, employees are invited to s stand on their principles if they want to stay, despite problematic programs. Netflix even decided to lay off several hundred people.

Despite this turbulent time for the company, Ted Sarandos is trying to calm things down. “Consumer reactions are part of an inflationary context. Each customer asks himself the question of the value of a subscription in relation to its cost. Self-fulfilling prophecies play their role. By dint of evoking the recession, households are restricting their expenses. This loss of subscribers must be put into perspective: in 2020 we had achieved the best performance since our creation”he tempered. “We are adapting to the slowdown in growth compared to projections. Without limiting expenditure on content production: it will reach 17 billion euros in 2022”he specified.

The arrival of advertising becomes clearer: “The launch will be global”

To get out of its infernal spiral, Netflix is ​​studying several avenues, starting with the launch of an offer based on advertising. “We are going to give the choice. By offering it to customers who want to pay less and who are not put off by advertising”said Ted Sarandos to the JDD. And to add: “The date has not yet been set. But the launch will be global. This will make our model more complex, but will allow us to expand our audience.”

In this context, the American firm would have engaged in discussions with players like Google. In France, we fear the birth of a new advertising ogre. Because if Netflix and Disney + reached 20% of French households, they could capture around 180 million euros in annual revenue by 2024, after a year of running-in. The equivalent of the French replay television market in its entirety in 2021. The two platforms could also absorb half of the growth of the online video advertising market, which represents 2 billion euros.

In France, Netflix presents itself as “a major exporter of French culture”and claims to have “invested this year 200 million euros in French creation, including 40 million in independent films”. However, the platform is annoyed by the timeline of the media.

Present at the Choose France summit, in Versailles, the world leader in streaming should not fail to remind Emmanuel Macron that he would be even more inclined to invest in the tricolor market if the media chronology were less restrictive for the platform. “I think the appropriate period is a few weeks and not a few months. You have to adapt to consumer expectations. France is an exception in the world, but this model is not sustainable”said Ted Sarandos on the eve of the summit, which is being held this Monday, July 11.