Netflix streaming competition is eating into growth

The latest Netflix shareholder letter included a line heard around the world:

“While this added competition may be affecting our marginal growth some...”

That clause doesn’t sound like much, but it’s Netflix’s strongest admission so far that streaming competition is affecting its subscriber growth.

Typically in Netflix’s competition section, the company claims Netflix competes against many different things (sleep! TikTok!), but other streaming services don’t pose much of a threat. Netflix has routinely argued there’s more than enough streaming viewing time to go around. It did again this quarter, noting that Netflix is still less than 10% of U.S. television screen time.