Five years ago this week… Netflix promised to stop counting free trialists in subscriber numbers, just as the SVoD’s base reached 130 million subs globally. In its Q3 2018 results, Netflix pledged to guide only to paid memberships by January 2019, and stop counting free trial users in its subscriber base by the beginning of 2020. The elimination of the free trialist count served as a final move quashing any debate analysts had as over the credibility of Netflix’s subscriber growth. Fast forward to 2023, Netflix is drawing attention away from subscribers as a core metric of success, and towards the bottom line – an attempt to build pressure on its less-profitable streaming rivals. Following high-profile recent blackouts triggered by…