The number of Dutch households with a Netflix subscription amounted to 2.94 million at the end of the fourth quarter, according to research from Telecompaper's Consumer Insights panel. The year before, the number of Dutch Netflix households was still at 2.6 million. On a sequential basis, that number increased by 120,000 households.
The penetration of Netflix in the Netherlands at the end of December was 39 percent, or 2 out of 5 households. That is 5 percentage points more than in December 2017 (34%). Penetration in the third quarter of 2018 was at 37 percent. Netflix reported fourth quarter results, saying it now has 139 million subscribers worldwide.
Slowdown in growth
Netflix passed the 1 million households mark in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2015. In the fourth quarter of 2016, it passed 2 million households. Since the third quarter of 2017 (2.4 million households) there has been a marked slowdown in growth. Growth stagnated briefly between the first and second quarter of 2018.
In July 2015, Netflix achieved a record year-on-year growth of 81 percent, after which the growth leveled off. In March 2016, that increase was at 43 percent. For December 2016, year-on-year growth went to 58 percent.
Halfway through 2018, the growth figures fell below 20 percent, to reach 13 percent in December 2018. This decline can partly be explained by the fact that 39 percent of all households now have a Netflix subscription. Growth potential is still sufficient, but some flattening at this level of penetration is to be expected.
