Netflix CEO Backs Harris, Cancellations Ensue

Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings waded into presidential politics with a July 23 endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and a $7 million donation to a super PAC affiliated with her campaign, but that donation might have cost his company some money. As Quartz reports, Netflix users canceled at an unusually high rate in the following days: "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."

Quartz notes that three days later, the churn rate returned to normal, but it also reports that Netflix has one of the lowest churn rates in the industry, making the spike stand out. Bloomberg gives a little more context, noting that the streaming service had also canceled its basic tier in July, which invited some cancellations, but also reports that supporters of Donald Trump invoked a #CancelNetflix hashtag they posted on social media along with their cancellations. Hastings is a longtime Democratic donor. (More Kamala Harris 2024 stories.)