Netflix still keeps its customers. It is struggling to keep their attention. Subscribers are spending less time watching and opening the app less often, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing internal data and people familiar with the figures, as summarised by Seeking Alpha.
According to the report, members now use Netflix on fewer days each month than they did several years ago, and average viewing time per subscriber has fallen. Total viewing hours still rose slightly in the first half of 2026, only because there are more subscribers. The slide began after Netflix's 2022 crackdown on password sharing, which executives expected to cause a short dip, and it has lasted longer.
What the outside data shows
- Apptopia: the share of US subscribers who did not open the app rose 16.6% in the third quarter from a year earlier.
- Antenna: Netflix's monthly US cancellation rate is about 2%, still the lowest in streaming.
- Nielsen: in July, YouTube took a record 14.2% of US television viewing. Netflix took 7.8%.
Netflix has about 325 million subscribers. Its shares are down about 29% this year, according to Seeking Alpha, and on 14 October it began cutting about 1,000 jobs, roughly 6% of its staff, though it has not linked the cuts to viewing. "Overall we're not growing as fast as I want us to," co-chief executive Ted Sarandos said at Bloomberg's Screentime event, IBTimes UK reports. Netflix is spending more on programming and moving into live sport and podcasts.
