Netflix users open the app less and watch less, Bloomberg reports, as ad forecast is cut

Less time in the app

Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named, that individual Netflix users open the app less often and watch less content than they did two years ago. Netflix tracks this with an internal metric called qualified play days (QPD), which counts how often users use the app. Overall time spent in the app rose 2 percentage points in the first half of the year, a gain the company links mostly to new subscribers. The decline appears to date from 2022, when Netflix banned password sharing and fewer people used each account. Despite the trend, the company has not seen mass cancellations.

Management's case

Greg Peters, Netflix's co-CEO, told analysts after the third-quarter results that engagement remains healthy and drives the business model. He pointed to the cancellation rate, which improved from a year earlier both globally and in the United States and is now the best in the sector. Peters also rejected the idea that recent price increases, including in the United States, have hurt engagement, saying the results are consistent with earlier price changes and the company's expectations. Ted Sarandos, the other co-CEO, conceded on an analyst call that US viewing is not growing as fast as the company expected, while both executives said the business outside the US is performing well. Antenna puts the US subscription churn rate at about 2%, stable despite the latest price rises. Apptopia's data show the share of US users who never opened the app rose by 16.6% in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the same quarter of 2025.

Advertising target slips

Netflix's third-quarter revenue reached $12.87 billion, up 11.8% from a year earlier, with an operating margin of 34.6%. The company cut its expected 2026 advertising revenue from about 3 billion to about 2.7 billion. Its shareholder letter for the fourth quarter of 2025 had said advertising passed 1.5 billion and promised to double that figure this year. Peters said the ad business would grow more than 80% but admitted Netflix is somewhat behind that goal, blaming a slower-than-planned rollout of some advertiser tools. Shares fell 6% after the results were released. Subscription income rises with prices, while advertising depends on the time viewers spend on screen, where minutes have barely grown.

Before revision3

After revision2.7

Before revision

3 USD billion

After revision

2.7 USD billion

Data from the article text

Viewing hours and job cuts

Netflix recorded more than 97,000 million viewing hours in the first half of 2026, its highest figure for a six-month period. That compares with 95,200 million in the same period of 2025, growth of only 2%. Netflix will publish that viewing report once a year from 2027 instead of every six months. The company says its advertising audience approaches one billion people, and Peters told analysts that its ad technology is being rolled out faster than anyone else in the sector. On Wednesday, 14 October, Netflix eliminated about 1,000 jobs, and two long-serving executives are also leaving the company.

First half 202595,200

First half 2026 (more than)97,000

First half 2025

95200 million hours

First half 2026 (more than)

97000 million hours

Data from the article text