If you run a streaming service and you want Wall Street analysts and investors to stop caring so much about your subscriber numbers, you have a couple of options. You can a) nicely ask the analysts to pay less attention to subscriber figures and instead focus on something else, like revenue and profits; or b) just stop reporting your subscriber numbers every quarter.
' Netflix would surely like to avoid repeating that history when its user growth stalls again. In recent quarters, the subscriber numbers have been boosted in part by the company’s efforts to crack down on password sharing, plus its promotion of the ad-supported tier, which reduces cancellations in the wake of the aforementioned price increases. The effect of converting freeloaders to paying customers will eventually wear off, though Netflix still has room to grow.