TA-DUM...DA DUM DUM: It looks like Netflix will start clamping down on sharing passwords, following a brutal loss of some 200,000 streaming subscribers in the first three months of this year.
The Wall Street Journal reports the streaming service could lose as many as two million total subscribers this quarter.
The loss of 200,000 subscribers was the largest loss suffered by the company in a decade, and caused a 35% drop in the stock price for the streaming giant on Wall Street Wednesday.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings revealed the grim subscriber statistics during an earnings call on Tuesday, in which he detailed plans to clamp down on subscribers sharing their passwords -- which the company's never seriously addressed -- and also proposed a cheaper, ad-supported subscription rate.
The Journal reports Netflix had added more than 18 million subscribers in 2021, which was weaker than normal, and a drastic decline from the 36 million it had added in 2020, when millions of people were at home in front of their TVs during the early pandemic lockdowns.