Netflix cancellations increase after CEO Reed Hastings endorses Kamala Harris

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 sizable donation to support her campaign.

Bloomberg reported On Sunday, the company announced that Netflix's churn rate, the percentage of subscribers who cancel their service over a period of time, nearly tripled in the U.S. following Hastings' support. The outlet cited numbers from market research firm Antenna, which also shared the data with Quartz.

In July, Netflix saw a slight increase in churn rate, reaching 2.8%, compared to 1.8% in June and 2.0% in August. Notably, in the five-day period from July 25 to July 29, average daily cancellations increased to 2.7 times the rate observed in the previous two weeks, with July 26 being the highest day for Netflix Emigration marked last year. However, after July 29, daily cancellations returned to normal and have remained stable since then.

The rise in cancellations coincided with Hastings' support.

Hastings supported Harris in a post on the social media platform X (META), formerly known as Twitter, on July 22nd. The next day, he told The Information that he had donated $7 million to a super PAC supporting her campaign.

Hastings donated to the Republican Accountability PAC. It was his largest 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 re-election after a disastrous debate against Donald Trump. At the beginning of July he said The New York Times that “Biden must resign so that an energetic Democratic leader can defeat Trump and ensure our security and prosperity.”

In support of Hastings, supporters of Donald Trump called for a boycott of Netflix and some shared images of their canceled social media accounts using the hashtag #CancelNetflix.