Streaming giant under pressure: Netflix is ​​growing more slowly

Streaming pioneer under pressure Netflix is ​​fighting against growing competition As of: October 21, 2026 • 10:20 a.m

For years, Netflix was the undisputed market leader in streaming. But the group is fighting against ever stronger competition. New productions should help to captivate viewers more - and sell more advertising.

Supported by the success of the second season of “The Gentlemen” and the new edition of “Our Little Farm,” Netflix posted a surprisingly high quarterly profit. Revenues rose by almost twelve percent to $12.87 billion in the past three months - but this was the lowest value in three years. In the same period last year they had increased even more significantly - by more than 17 percent.

Sales growth had fallen to its lowest level in almost three years. The world's largest streaming service also gave a cautious business outlook on Tuesday. The streaming service, however, scaled back its forecast for advertising revenue to around $2.7 billion from around $3 billion.

The US group expects a total increase of twelve percent to $13.4 billion for the final quarter of 2026. Netflix shares then fell by almost five percent in after-hours trading on Wall Street.

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Netflix is ​​struggling with increased competition. Co-chief executive Ted Sarandos recently emphasized that the company is not growing as quickly as he would like. According to market research firm Nielsen, YouTube in particular is expanding its market share. The usage time is almost twice as long as with Netflix.

Among other things, the streaming market leader now wants to ensure that users spend more time with its films and series. This would also increase advertising revenue again. Netflix has been increasingly relying on ad-financed user accounts for several years. These promise higher returns in the long term.

To do this, however, viewers must be glued to the screen for as long as possible. In the future, live broadcasts of concerts or sporting events will contribute to this. In addition, the company concluded licensing agreements with its competitor Walt Disney, for example to be able to show the animated films in the “Ice Age” series.

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“We want to be the must-have entertainment service,” co-chief executive Ted Sarandos said in a video conference with analysts. “We know we can do better,” agreed his colleague Greg Peters.

Recently, in-house productions have also been somewhat of a disappointment: at the last round of award ceremonies, films and series from the streaming service largely went away empty-handed. Hits like “Stranger Things” or “Squid Game” were not followed by titles that were able to establish themselves in the zeitgeist in a similar way.

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This recently resulted in personnel consequences: the long-time program manager Bela Bajaria, who was supposed to implement the vision that as many target groups as possible everywhere in the world could find something for themselves on Netflix, had to leave. Shortly afterwards, film director Dan Lin was also hit. Bajaria's role is now taken over by Peter Rice, who made his career at classic studios like Disney.

There is speculation that Netflix could initially release more films widely in cinemas with Rice - something that Sarandos always dismissed as a distraction from the core business. In addition, Netflix cut around six percent of jobs and around 1,000 employees lost their jobs.

This topic in the program: BR24 Radio | News | Oct 21, 2026 | 8:10 a.m