Netflix’s position as the king of streaming is under serious threat

Competitors continue to pick up subscribers – the point at which Disney Plus overtakes Netflix is fast approaching, says James Moore

Netflix could use a few more hit shows like Bridgerton as subscriber numbers fall (Liam Daniel/Netflix)

Commenting on a tweet about Netflix’s drop in subscriber numbers, Elon Musk suggested that a “woke mind virus” has made Netflix “unwatchable”.

Some people proceeded to take this seriously, completely missing the obvious. He was surely trolling. Has he even watched Netflix? Given his diverse interests and reputed 16-hour, or whatever, workdays, it’s debatable. Even if he has, he won’t have had sufficient time to be able to offer a meaningful opinion on its vast output, woke or otherwise.

The reality is that it’s not a mind virus which has led to the first fall in Netflix subscriber numbers in a decade (200,000 lower than a year ago) with 2 million more switch-offs potentially coming, per the company’s forecast. Boss Reed Hastings is dealing with issues on multiple fronts.