Netflix (NFLX) saw a spike in cancellations shortly after its co-founder and chairman Reed Hastings endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president and made a considerable donation to support her campaign.
Bloomberg reported on Sunday that Netflix’s churn rate, the percentage of subscribers who cancel their service over a given period, almost tripled in the U.S. following Hastings’ endorsement. The outlet cited figures from the market intelligence firm Antenna, which also shared the data with Quartz.
In July, Netflix experienced a slight increase in churn, reaching 2.8% compared to 1.8% in June and 2.0% in August. Notably, the five-day period from July 25 to July 29 saw average daily cancellations spike to 2.7 times the rate observed in the previous two weeks, with July 26 marking the highest churn day for Netflix in the past year. However, after July 29, daily cancellations returned to normal levels and have remained stable since then.
The spike in cancellations coincided with Hastings’ endorsement.
Congrats to Kamala Harris — now it is time to win
— Reed Hastings (@reedhastings) July 23, 2024
Hastings endorsed Harris in a post on the social media platform X (META), formerly known as Twitter, on July 22. The next day, he told The Information that he had donated $7 million to a super PAC backing her campaign.
Hastings made the donation to the Republican Accountability PAC. It was his biggest donation in support of a single candidate.
Hastings was one of the first major Democratic megadonors to call on President Joe Biden to withdraw from seeking reelection after what he described as a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. In early July, he told The New York Times that “Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous.”
In the wake of Hastings’ endorsement, supporters of Donald Trump began calling for a boycott of Netflix, with some sharing images of their canceled accounts on social media under the hashtag #CancelNetflix.
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