Is This the Downfall of Netflix?

Friends, That 70’s Show, and now Parks and Recreation: why is Netflix losing some of their greatest hits? It’s because they are losing many of their most popular titles. The reason for this big loss is because the original creators of the content want their titles back to be used for their own streaming platforms.

Netflix has lost shows since 2019, it first started with That 70’s Shows. It later moved on to losing bigger titles such as Parks and Recreation and The Office.

Even the popular show, Friends has been taken out. Some people are very sad about this. “When I found out that the TV show Friends was taken off of Netflix, I was crushed. It was one of my favorite TV shows because it included romance, drama, and even comedy,” says sophomore Samantha Ordaz.

According to The Washington Post, “That was the lesson from the streaming giant Tuesday, as the company reported that its quarterly net subscriber gains dipped below 10 million for the first time since the start of the pandemic, to just 2.2 million over the summer.”

Netflix’s decline in popularity started when platforms like NBC’s Peacock and HBO MAX, wanted their original productions back. Netflix was paying these television/streaming companies millions of dollars to keep their money makers like Friends which was also taken back by NBC Universal.

Not all hope has been lost for Netflix though. Of the top ten Netflix shows, 7 of them were originals, Queen’s Gambit, Bridgerton, Cobra Kai, History of Swear Words, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Dare Me.

Netflix’s strategy to stop losing subscribers is to create more Netflix originals. As you can tell by the top 10 list, this strategy seems to be working. While unfortunately Netflix is losing some of its most popular titles, their originals may help Netflix recover from their losses.

Future titles that may help Netflix in 2021 are Behind Her Eyes; psychological thriller series, The Dig; drama history film, Cobra Kai Season 3; comedy, drama series, Nailed It; season 3, Jurassic World; season 2, Stranger Things; season 4, Carmen Sandiego; season 4, Shutter Island; a thriller mystery featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception; an action science fiction movie which also features Leonardo DiCaprio.

“This year I am looking forward to watching the new season of Stranger Things. I hope to see the new uncovered mysteries in Hawkins,” says sophomore Victoria Ramirez.

Although Netflix has lost a lot of its titles, their future still seems to be bright. Netflix can rely on their new releases and their originals in order to make up for their losses.