Netflix 2021: It’s all about maintaining the lead

Streaming war or no war, Netflix was and is always at the top of its game no matter what. This year tested everyone to their wits, but for the streaming businesses, it was one of the best years of their lives.

With the stay-at-home orders and all the theaters and outdoor activities closed down, people turned to their TVs and services like Netflix to fulfill their daily dose of entertainment. But Netflix was not the only fish in the pond.

3 more services emerged at the beginning of the year, HBO Max, Peacock, and Quibi, along with Disney+, which launched at the end of 2019. And with that, Netflix had a ton of competition to look out for.

But with the popularity Netflix had built over the year, it was way ahead in the lead before any one of these services even was in the making. This is where Netflix had a huge advantage over the other streaming services. Time, it had left its struggling days way behind in the past, and after years worth of struggle, it had come through as the best entertainment source in 2020.

What contributed to all these factors, and what lead Netflix to become the best of the lot? There are alot of reasons behind it. It’s availability and reach being at the top of the list. In order for a product to become famous, it should become local, and that’s what Netflix did.

Expanding its reach across the globe in over 180 countries and presenting over the top local or regional content for viewers to relate and stay attracted to the service. And to help it reach such hights were the Netflix original content more than the regular Holywood produced movies.

With almost 6000+ shows and movies in the catalog, no one can beat the content library that Netflix has, and this is what helped it maintain the top spot. And adding in new subscribers during the pandemic was an effortless task for Netflix, despite the competition. Disney+ caters to family-oriented content only, and others have a limited library in general. People wanted variety, and they got it through Netflix.

Now that 2020 is ending, and people are looking forward to a new beginning with a vaccine in production for Covid19, things may slow down for everyone. 2021 will be the year where Netflix will have to maintain the growth rate that peaked the prior year. And the only thing that can stop the subscriber churn is its infamous original content.

Production houses have slowly resumed their work, but with numerous delays and halts, people are still very prone to catching the virus, no matter what precautions they take or whatever SOPs they follow.

“The state of the pandemic and its impact continues to make projections very uncertain, but as the world hopefully recovers in 2021, we would expect that our growth will revert back to levels similar to pre-COVID,” Netflix’s letter to shareholders reads. “ In turn, we expect paid net adds are likely to be down year over year in the first half of 2021 as compared to the big spike in paid net adds we experienced in the first half of 2020.”

Most of the shows streaming on Netflix throughout 2020 were already shot and were in post-production, which was efficiently completed remotely. And Netflix is currently paying attention to shows that are playing a massive role in bringing in subscribers and generating as much revenue as possible.

This means the cancellation of expensive shows and series, which may have been fancy, but did not generate as much as Netflix expected. But Netflix is hopeful and states that “For our 2021 slate, we continue to expect the number of Netflix originals launched on our service to be up year over year in each quarter of 2021 and we’re confident that we’ll have an exciting range of programming for our members, particularly relative to other entertainment service options.”

With that, Netflix also hiked the price in a few regions, starting from Canada, and it may reach other regions as well. There was an overall $1 increase in the standard plan and $2 in the premium plan. And it may not be alot considering the library you get with this price.

But there was always a debate about other regions having fewer shows and movies as compared to Netflix in the US. Yet, the price ranges were all the same, and it may seem unfair, but ScreenBinge has numerous ways through which you can access the American Netflix library with your own Netflix subscription.

With that, Netflix may seem optimistic with the business dealings, but only time will tell if all this will actually bring a positive change, rather than setting them back altogether.