Commentary
Netflix Sends Gentle, Break-Up Nudge To Subscribers
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, May 27, 2020
So confident is Netflix about its perceived strength in the market, it is offering to cancel subscribers who haven't been using the service.
Maybe this is reverse psychology. Longtime marketing executives might complain one should never open this door to consumers. Don’t give them any ideas.
Monthly ongoing subscription deals for premium services have always had the easy option of canceling. No shame. No hard sell. Just a sentiment that says: “That’s too bad. We look forward whenever you want to come back.”
This is part of the transition that witnessed the rise of big cord-cutting from traditional pay TV providers -- cable, satellite and telco -- where deals would saddle consumers with long-term and sometimes multi-year contracts.
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Unlike pay TV deals, there are no long contracts with streaming.
Netflix's timing couldn’t be more perfect here. In the age of COVID-19, where there are plenty of people working from home -- or unfortunately, out of work, TV viewing, both traditional and streaming have been on the rise.
On TV, radio and streaming news interviews, people admit to watching a lot of Netflix. Great earning-media marketing, in and of itself.
This is from a recent Netflix blog:
“You know that sinking feeling when you realize you signed up for something, but haven’t used it in ages? At Netflix, the last thing we want is people paying for something they’re not using.”
“So we’re asking everyone who has not watched anything on Netflix for a year since they joined to confirm they want to keep their membership. And we’ll do the same for anyone who has stopped watching for more than two years.”
Maybe Netflix knows something: It adds that these type of accounts represent “less than half of one percent of our overall member base, only a few hundred thousand.”
With nearly 70 million-plus U.S./Canada subscribers and more then 182 million worldwide, big guys can be generous sometimes.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
Wayne, didn't Netflix also say that such non using subscribers amounted to less than half of one percent of its total network?In other words, it's no big deal---many of these people may have died and that's why they aren't using the service; others may have moved and this disrupted their usage in some manner.
Still the right thing to do.