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Netflix recently revealed that it lost around 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, and due to this, it has reportedly canceled the projects from its animation department. The video streaming giant supposedly made the decision to cut costs as it experienced its first subscriber loss in more than 10 years.
As per Fox Business, some of Netlfix’s animation projects that have been unfortunately discarded include the animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's "The Twits," a series that is based on the comic book series titled “Bone” by Jeff Smith and “Toil and Trouble” by Lauren Faust.
It was reported that Netflix did not only cancel the said animation shows, but Phil Rynda, the company’s director of creative leadership and development for original animation, was said to have been let go along with many of his staff.
Moreover, due to the massive loss of subscribers, the major shake-up in Netflix’s animation department is not the only thing going on inside the company. A restructuring of its engineering unit is also ongoing, as reported by Bloomberg. The publication tried to reach out to the company for comments, but its spokesperson was not able to send an immediate response.
Prior to this, Netflix also lost 700,000 subscribers when it shut down its streaming service in Russia. Worldwide, the company has a total of almost 222 million subscribers, and the company is still expecting to lose additional two million subscribers in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, the company is also cracking down on households that are sharing their passwords. Netflix is working on this password-sharing issue in an effort to combat subscriber losses. The plan is to check on over 100 million households and quash the illegal practice.
CNBC reported that the crackdown is a surprising move from Netflix, which the company confirmed this week. The firm said that it will finally be addressing the widespread password-sharing habit in the United States and Canada to recapture lost revenues.
“If you have a sister, let us say, that is living in a different city, you want to share Netflix with her, that is great,” Netflix’s chief operating officer, Greg Peters, explained during the recent earnings call. “We are not trying to shut down that sharing but we are going to ask you to pay a bit more to be able to share with her and so that she gets the benefit and the value of the service, but we also get the revenue associated with that viewing.”
