(Photo Credit: Alex Castro / The Verge)

Netflix stock drop with subscriber rates

Netflix’s video streaming service suffered a huge slowdown in growth this spring season. Despite forecasting 5 million subscribers, the streaming service only picked up 2.7 million worldwide subscribers for the April-June period. This also included a decline in U.S. subscribers, sending Netflix shares down 12 percent.

However, Netflix hopes to pick things back up this summer, projecting that it will a million subscribers from July through September. Much of the optimism comes from the recent release and massive popularity of the new season of “Stranger Things,” whose third season already garnered a record viewership after its July 4 release.

However, it’s still going to be an uphill battle for Netflix because Walt Disney Co. and Apple plan to launch their own streaming channels. AT&T will also join the bandwagon next year with HBO Max, and NBC is also expanding into video streaming.

As more and more companies plan on releasing their own streaming services, consumers are becoming dizzy with what to do. This begs the question about whether Netflix will be able to maintain the rate of subscriber growth, especially with so much competition entering the arena.

Revenue wise, Netflix could make more money if it were to sell ads, but the company’s management was firm in stating that the service will continue to remain commercial-free. As of right now, more money is going towards the development of more original shows to replace some of the programmings that it will be going back to Disney, AT&T, and NBC.