Can Netflix compete with the real world?

LARA WILLIAMS

The streaming wars took a savage turn this past week. Netflix’s earnings report disappointed investors. CNN+ dropped out of the game entirely, just a month after launching. The result has been a wave of brutal selloffs, making Netflix the worst-performing member of the S&P 500 this year to date.

Here’s the data point that likely wiped out billions of dollars of value: A decade of seemingly perpetual growth came to a halt with the loss of some 200,000 subscribers. You might need to grab a magnifying glass to see them, though, because ultimately that’s just a 0.09 per cent decline.