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Netflix Immediately Paid a Price After Chairman Endorsed Kamala Harris

 By Joe Saunders  October 1, 2024 at 8:47am
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At Netflix, the numbers tell the story.

When the streaming giant’s co-founder and company chairman decided to not only endorse Democrat Kamala Harris for president, but also to donate $7 million to a super PAC supporting her, the backlash didn’t take long.

Within days, the company recorded its worst numbers of the year when it comes to customer cancellations.

It’s a rock-solid bet it wasn’t a coincidence.

Writing in a Bloomberg piece published Sunday, Lucas Shaw, Bloomberg’s managing editor for media and entertainment, reported that Netflix saw cancellations rise in July, largely as a result of the company’s move to phase out its basic tier of service — “the cheapest advertising-free version of Netflix.”

But something else happened in July, too: A decision by Reed Hastings, the company’s executive chairman, to publicly back Harris with a social media post, and to announce the huge donation to the technology news website The Information.

President Joe Biden announced July 21 he was dropping his re-election bid (though he apparently still can’t bring himself to admit what really happened).

He endorsed Harris the same day.

Hastings didn’t take long in making his feelings known:

“Congrats to Kamala Harris — now it is time to win,” he wrote.

And as Shaw reported at Bloomberg, that didn’t sit well at all with Netflix subscribers who support former President Donald Trump.

“Shortly after Hastings’ endorsement, fans of Donald Trump began urging people to drop the service,” Shaw wrote. “Some posted photos showing they had closed their accounts alongside the hashtag #CancelNetflix. Three days later after the donation became public, July 26, was the single worst day for Netflix cancellations this year.”

This isn’t the first time Netflix has outraged conservatives.

Do you have a Netflix subscription?

In 2020, the film “Cuties,” which depicted young girls performing dance scenes better suited to back-street jiggle joints — or maybe an Olympics opening ceremony — spurred another round of cancellations.

The Netflix cancellations after the Hastings’ Harris endorsement and PAC donation weren’t as high as they were amid the “Cuties” controversy, Shaw reported. But that might be because there just weren’t as many conservative Netflix subscribers this time around because of the “Cuties” controversy.

Here’s a sampling of some social media reaction to the news:

But this one might have put it best:

“Reed Hastings backing Kamala Harris and seeing Netflix cancellations skyrocket is proof that consumers won’t stand for political overreach,” the user wrote. “When corporations mix politics with business, they risk alienating huge swaths of their audience. Bad move, Netflix.”

Related:
A Whole New World: Disney Actress Actually Apologizes for Anti-Trump Rant, But Is It Just 'Damage Control'?

It should have been clear by now that there’s no percentage in liberal executives virtue signalling with political donations when it comes to the bottom line of a business. (The careers of certain now-former Bud Light executives should be testimony to that.)

At Netflix, the numbers tell the story — and every business in the country should understand the moral:

Entertainment companies exist to entertain — not pontificate, or proselytize, or politicize every waking moment of American life.

When they choose to do so, they lose — they lose subscribers, they lose customers, they lose loyalty and they lose money.

And no business can afford to do that for long.

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Joe Saunders
Story Editor
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro desk editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He's been with Liftable Media since 2015.
Joe has spent more than 30 years as a reporter, copy editor and metro editor in newsrooms in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida. He's been with Liftable Media since 2015. Largely a product of Catholic schools, who discovered Ayn Rand in college, Joe is a lifelong newspaperman who learned enough about the trade to be skeptical of every word ever written. He was also lucky enough to have a job that didn't need a printing press to do it.
Birthplace
Philadelphia
Nationality
American




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