Netflix Begins Crackdown on Password Sharing in US and UK

[jlc1978]

$32.5 million. I'm pretty sure they've recouped it, and I've already paid for it 3X (VHS and DVD, plus watching in the theater when they re-released the special editions (and I didn't yet know they were worse).

While they probably made a gross profit, they may not have made much, if any net profit due to how Hollywood accounts for costs. That's why .1% of teh gross is better than 100% of the net.

Piracy ended in the music industry because better options came along for a reasonable price-- not because people suddenly felt sorry for the RIAA.

Still didn't make piracy right; no matter how people try to rationalize it.

 

[I7guy]

You can call it whatever you want.

The reality is, when you're selling an good which can be infinitely copied/distributed for near zero cost, you are competing with piracy. A viable business model has to be better (generally means easier, since piracy is already ad free and high quality) and priced such that people are more willing to pay for it than go through the effort of pirating. We know this to be true from the music industry.

For me, right now, that's still the case-- as by only paying for one service at a time (and rotating them out as I use up the content), the price is still quite reasonable. If they start, say, requiring year long contracts, that would push me past my limit and I'll be sailing the seas again.

Nixing account sharing is functionally a price hike. It's just another step down the path...

Digital distribution of content, after billions and billions are spent on the infrastructure and software to make it happen is dirt cheap. Netflix content cannot be copied.(at
Least not easily bit for bit) that makes piracy moot.

With the advent of concept of a primary location they are cutting down on what they consider to be unauthorized usage.

They won’t ever get the number to zero, people will bail and others will sign up in their stead.

 

[Obioban]

Netflix content cannot be copied.(at
Least not easily bit for bit) that makes piracy moot.

…

The Pirate Bay - The galaxy's most resilient bittorrent site

thepiratebay.org

Life mmm ah finds a way.

 

[gund1234]

And I think EU will probably put an end to this practice on Netflix sooner or later with new consumer protection law allowing account sharing as “fair use”

I want EU to pass a law that states every phone manufacturer should release at least one small phone every year.
EU should set phone sizes, small, medium, large.
And what screen to use, LED, OLED, 60 Hz, 120 Hz.
I am tired of paying extra for large phone, OLED, 120 Hz that i don't need.
Please help me EU.

 

[Stromos]

There was no evaluation and as stated above we are keeping Netflix.

Apple’s business model is different than Netflix. There is no share hardware. If you have an iphone or iPad you can do whatever the software installed on the iphone lets you do. I pay for a family iCloud account, that’s part of Apple’s business model. Apple services can’t be consumed without an iphone, except for those exposed on the web and even then some subscription is required.

Sure hope that a company fails because you don’t like their TOS that’s schadenfreude. Netflix isn’t defining a family it’s defining a primary location.

The above is convulted. If you are saying you put on Netflix in your home for your guests, what’s the problem with that. If you are saying you gave out your password so that your family could watch Netflix at multiple locations, well that’s now gone. And if you cancel, Netflix won’t care.

And now you are within the tos and not stealing their content.

It won’t go the way your think, imo.

This won’t encourage people. You can feel free to cancel and rant on the internet, but people will do what they want.

While anything is possible…remember when Tim Cook took the helm. Apple was doomed and Apple according to some still is doomed. People need to refresh their memories on what “doomed” really means.

Netflix didn’t care how much you used the service, nor that you were even a customer. They are providing a service and it’s up the customer to decide if the service is for them.

So don’t subscribe for a month. You are missing out on content. I do agree a cheaper 4K option would probably bring up the subscriber numbers. But I guess Netflix did it’s homework.

Only you can decide if the service is worth it. People are posting their opinions the same as you as spouting yours.

They have defined a location. They don’t care is it’s a college dorm room.

As people have a right to complain, people have a right to say it’s within Netflixs’ right to run their business as they see fit.

They are a location, not a family.

It probably won’t. As their are others who will now subscribe, where before they weren’t subscribers.

Their new TOS and plan doesn’t seem to suit your needs. Are you annoyed that Netflix is running their business the way they want?

For whatever reason, Netflix doesn’t see the above as their business model. And I have to believe they did their homework, based on what happened in other countries prior to the US.

It’s real hilarious. Sure 4 streams for 4 people. Maybe Netflix should lock down the 4 people with biometric authentication. That’s not the way it works. 4 streams simultaneously from 4 devices in the primary location.

Or you may be surprised at the results that people don’t have the same thought process as you and see their numbers go up.

How are people this attached to Netflix? You do realize if I'm right the only thing that happens is things get cheaper or more agreeable. That's the point. I don't agree with the TOS. I will rally till I drop dead for them to fail. That's how change happens. You do know that if Netflix fails or has to change their TOS that it tells everyone else the model is a bad idea.

I don't understand the enabling of people in 2023 of yes more money to the rich corporations. As long as it's something I want spare no expense. People who are trying to ultimately save me money are the enemy.

If enough people would cancel for a quarter I promise you things would change. People have zero self control if they want something. Once again I'm not losing any sleep that I'm not coming back unless Netflix makes changes.

You're probably right though people want Netflix so cost isn't an object. Customers have lost their minds and companies are fully aware of it. Inflation should be killing all these non essentials but somehow they are making more money than ever. Literally a bit of delayed gratification would kill all these price hikes. Vote with your wallet means nothing when for every 1 vote there are 50 saying I don't care what it costs just send me a monthly bill.

 

[Stromos]

Family is not Family when it comes to different technology based services. You use the example of cell companies offering family group discounts. There they are just offering discounts for multiple lines no matter where you live, but via GPS they know where they are. In Netflix case it's not absolutely rigid for families such as the example of a son that lives a few days at home and then a few days close to school. That to Netflix is close enough for their rules to work. Going traveling or at work is in compliance beside at home. These examples of families all spread over well that shows up with MAC/IP address history if you don't see the devices never associated with the LAN at a home.

The interesting part of your post involves do you think this will reduce subscribers? If a lot of these people on a family plan weren't living together (friends/roommates also) and were separated that going to be a I got you. Since they weren't really paying for the service and you were, it will turn into why am I paying of (4) 4K connections? This is where it's questionable to which way this goes. If they miss Netflix you get another subscriber, if they were thinking it's a nice perk they might not miss it at all. But if I guess Netflix will actually gain subscribers not loose them depending on most situations but not everyones. Be curious to see which way it goes.

I don't disagree. You left out my friend with a husband overseas. He does not have a household out there trust me. He also gets to come home 4 times a year. Netflix thinks those two people should be paying as individuals. Once again their "thought" turned 1 customer to zero.

The why am I paying for 4 4K connections is exactly why I quit. I made that very clear when I cancelled to them.

 

[I7guy]

…

The Pirate Bay - The galaxy's most resilient bittorrent site

thepiratebay.org

Life mmm ah finds a way.

Yes, I did have a qualifier there. It's my opinion most people cannot accomplish ripping video streams from streaming providers bit for bit effortlessly.

 

[I7guy]

How are people this attached to Netflix?

232 million? https://www.demandsage.com/netflix-subscribers/

You do realize if I'm right the only thing that happens is things get cheaper or more agreeable. That's the point. I don't agree with the TOS. I will rally till I drop dead for them to fail. That's how change happens. You do know that if Netflix fails or has to change their TOS that it tells everyone else the model is a bad idea.

My point is some people have your thoughts, some don't. Netflix tried this out already and yet they still went through with this in the US. My guess is they did their homework, even though they anticipated churn.

I don't understand the enabling of people in 2023 of yes more money to the rich corporations. As long as it's something I want spare no expense. People who are trying to ultimately save me money are the enemy.

It's not about "more money to rich corporations". It's about price and value for a service, imo.

If enough people would cancel for a quarter I promise you things would change. People have zero self control if they want something. Once again I'm not losing any sleep that I'm not coming back unless Netflix makes changes.

Enough people aren't going to cancel, because I don't believe this matters to many. It clearly matters to some, like the vocal minority here at MR.

You're probably right though people want Netflix so cost isn't an object. Customers have lost their minds and companies are fully aware of it. Inflation should be killing all these non essentials but somehow they are making more money than ever. Literally a bit of delayed gratification would kill all these price hikes. Vote with your wallet means nothing when for every 1 vote there are 50 saying I don't care what it costs just send me a monthly bill.

Let's say I'm on the premium plan. For $240/yr there is a lot of content to be had; a lot of entertainment for that $240. To put this in perspective, the last time I took my family to the theater it was $1,000 ish. Broadway show and dinner afterward. I still believe Netflix has value for the price. Vote with your wallet is both a philosophy and smack to the company. You have to do what is right for you.

 

[B4U]

Netflix has lost their minds!

Can't lose something that they never had. 🤣

 

[jlc1978]

I don't disagree. You left out my friend with a husband overseas. He does not have a household out there trust me. He also gets to come home 4 times a year. Netflix thinks those two people should be paying as individuals. Once again their "thought" turned 1 customer to zero.

Given netflix has various geo restrictions, people in two different countries would need 2 seperate local accounts seperate from Netflix’ sharing policy. And yes, I am well aware of using a VPN to circumvent geo-fencing.

 

[deeddawg]

Yes, I did have a qualifier there. It's my opinion most people cannot accomplish ripping video streams from streaming providers bit for bit effortlessly.

That or the content just isn’t worth the effort for most

I’ve enjoyed a handful of Netflix shows in recent times, but honestly if T-mobile didn’t give me a free subscription I wouldn’t subscribe. I simply have so much other worthwhile content available - far more than I have time to watch - that there’s no reason to expend an effort to obtain pirated content.

 

[I7guy]

That or the content just isn’t worth the effort for most

That’s the point isn’t it. Piles of context at a reasonable price. Why get involved with theft. (And out of the piles of content there are some excellent shows)

I’ve enjoyed a handful of Netflix shows in recent times, but honestly if T-mobile didn’t give me a free subscription I wouldn’t subscribe. I simply have so much other worthwhile content available - far more than I have time to watch - that there’s no reason to expend an effort to obtain pirated content.

Well I have D+ and Apple Music paid for. Max goes along with my cable subscription.

We happen to like the content on Netflix, some outstanding content recently. I pay for the premium plan.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

I was setting it at an amount that everyone can agree is unreasonable in order to have the discussion.

Set at a lower price, the discussion becomes what is a "reasonable" price. I was explaining the logic of, if something is not worth the price to me, than they're not worse off if I copy it. What is a "reasonable" price varies from person to person and situation to situation, so only serves to distract from the point.

But, you are correct that would you be worse off if nobody finds the price worth it-- that's why the record industry had to change their business model from the old "you have to by 14 bad songs to also get 2 good ones (records/tapes/CDs)" model to the $1/song model, when piracy came a calling. Which, really, was a decent market correction, as they were formally acting in a fairly monopolistic manner. I don't think the entertainment industry is far off that today, especially with all the consolidations that have been occurring.


I have an audible subscription, as it seems like good value to me. If it suddenly doubled in cost and gave me lower bit rate audio files (or, worse, started inserting ads), I'd switch to piracy for books.

It's pretty simple. To be selected over piracy is has to be better than piracy and at the price I value it at or cheaper. If the price is higher than how much I value it, I'll either skip it or pirate it.

And then wonder why no one is publishing anything. And it is stealing.

 

[eltoslightfoot]

Only if they don't want to pay or wouldn't have paid.

"Is it worth the price? Nah, I'll just take it. No harm done."

Right, and then wonder why art is worse. I don’t get it, why are all the movies/books/art/music/games crap now? It can’t be my innocent pirating. Surely not.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

There are so many streaming services out there now and you will find many families will start to prioritise as it all adds up in cost. I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+. We did have Apple TV+ but cancelled it because it was pretty crap. I know quite a lot of people at work and friends who borrow Netflix off friends and family though despite it being quite cheap. Some people only watch a few shows here and there. One of my colleagues just downloads everything off torrents when he wants to watch something, so there are ways around it with a bit more effort.

I think if Netflix want the password crackdown to be successful, they need to reduce the price and make it attractive for those who have been borrowing passwords prior. If they are not paying £6.99 a month now, maybe they’ll be more inclined if it’s £4.99? Sure it’s only a couple of quid but psychologically it sounds a lot cheaper. There is potentially 100M households out there and that is revenue they don’t currently have.

 

[jlc1978]

There are so many streaming services out there now and you will find many families will start to prioritise as it all adds up in cost. I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+.

I remember when people were ecstatic over "cord cutting" and how much money tehy expected to save and they could stick it to the cable company.

Now, you pay the cable company for internet access, and buy streaming services because content owners needed to make up for lost cable revenue and decided to create their own streams as well as pull shows from competitor streams to gran customers that wanted their shows; and people pay as much or more.

I think if Netflix want the password crackdown to be successful, they need to reduce the price and make it attractive for those who have been borrowing passwords prior. If they are not paying £6.99 a month now, maybe they’ll be more inclined if it’s £4.99? Sure it’s only a couple of quid but psychologically it sounds a lot cheaper. There is potentially 100M households out there and that is revenue they don’t currently have.

Netflix could declare victory, lower the price a bit in celebration, and millions would cheer.

 

[ahurst]

With all these streaming services increasing their prices, and charging extra for 4K, more users may set sail.

View attachment 2206973

I remember that one of the big selling points of Netflix circa 2010 was that it offered a nicer experience than piracy for most people, because the cost was minimal and there was a good selection of high-quality content you could easily navigate and didn't need to physically download or seed.

Now that streaming has balkanized so heavily and you need to pay for 3-4 more expensive separate subscriptions to access all the content you could originally get on one, the "ahoy matey" cost/benefit ratio for the average person is very much shifting back to pre-2010 levels.

 

[twistedpixel8]

Oh no! I’m sure they will miss you and your freeloaders (or not because they will sign up for their own plan).

Are you under some disillusioned belief that I’m the only one leaving?

 

[I7guy]

There are so many streaming services out there now and you will find many families will start to prioritise as it all adds up in cost. I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+. We did have Apple TV+ but cancelled it because it was pretty crap. I know quite a lot of people at work and friends who borrow Netflix off friends and family though despite it being quite cheap. Some people only watch a few shows here and there. One of my colleagues just downloads everything off torrents when he wants to watch something, so there are ways around it with a bit more effort.

This thread has brought out the hypocrisy as people justify what amounts to stealing. We have been so innured about the internet being mostly free, most don’t bat an eye in an attempt to get content they didn’t pay for.

I think if Netflix want the password crackdown to be successful, they need to reduce the price and make it attractive for those who have been borrowing passwords prior.

I’m guessing they aren’t going to do this as it would only encourage more people to get subs and share them with their friends. Ever wonder why apple doesn’t half the price of it’s iphones to potentially sell twice as much?

If they are not paying £6.99 a month now, maybe they’ll be more inclined if it’s £4.99? Sure it’s only a couple of quid but psychologically it sounds a lot cheaper. There is potentially 100M households out there and that is revenue they don’t currently have.

They balance out the subscription price with the value of the offering. Don’t know the math they used, but they did come up with a $7.99 additional user. They could have determined the number was $5.00.

 

[I7guy]

Are you under some disillusioned belief that I’m the only one leaving?

No, think op is operating under the assumption Netflix knows what is doing and is expecting some churn. Given they already did this in the EU.

 

[myusernamedoesnotmatter]

That’s the point isn’t it. Piles of context at a reasonable price. Why get involved with theft. (And out of the piles of content there are some excellent shows)

Well I have D+ and Apple Music paid for. Max goes along with my cable subscription.

We happen to like the content on Netflix, some outstanding content recently. I pay for the premium plan.

can you recommend some good content on Netflix? The quality of Netflix recently has troubled me. Besides the reactionary Cleopatra culture war nonsense (I don't care about that), they have some documentaries of dangerously low quality, like blaming MH370 on Russia for no reason and giving conspiracy nut Graham Hancock an extra audience of millions (Conspiracy culture is a slippery slope, I'VE BEEN THERE).

I'm a sucker for documentaries that are good, but so many are of very poor quality it's honestly frustrating.

 

[myusernamedoesnotmatter]

I think more-and-more people are simply going to do what I do. Closely examine their viewing habits and swap services every couple of months. Right now its Paramount Plus and Hulu. In a few months I will shut down Paramount Plus and switch to Netflix. I stupidly keep Amazon Prime for the aggregated services (that keep getting worse—may have to look into that eventually) and Disney, Hulu, and ESPN Plus are included with my cell phone plan.

So I rotate some and keep Hulu, ESPN, Disney (for no added cost to me) and Amazon Prime.

Heck, I am cancelling YoutubeTV (as it has gone up like 30% in two years) until the NFL season starts. Then I will cancel as soon as it is done.

It isn’t that the price on these things is a big deal individually. Its when you start adding up all your subscriptions. It’s getting out of hand. So I operate at the margin. If we could share some of these services then great! Keep them all. They start cracking down, then I choose between them. The next step will be that they require contracts. At that point I won’t get them at all. There is too much to watch now.

+1 this x100. WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE DO THIS???? Do people really need some services 12 months a year?? Something I never understood besides being lazy.

 

[compwiz1202]

Let's say you own the rights to a song file. You want $1000 for it, and I don't value it at $1000, so I won't be paying for it.

I download it from xyz torrent site instead, and add it to my library.

Are you worse off than if I hadn't downloaded it?

I think they can be better off sometimes. If others hear it think it is worth, then they will buy it and tell others.

 

[compwiz1202]

There are so many streaming services out there now and you will find many families will start to prioritise as it all adds up in cost. I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+. We did have Apple TV+ but cancelled it because it was pretty crap. I know quite a lot of people at work and friends who borrow Netflix off friends and family though despite it being quite cheap. Some people only watch a few shows here and there. One of my colleagues just downloads everything off torrents when he wants to watch something, so there are ways around it with a bit more effort.

I think if Netflix want the password crackdown to be successful, they need to reduce the price and make it attractive for those who have been borrowing passwords prior. If they are not paying £6.99 a month now, maybe they’ll be more inclined if it’s £4.99? Sure it’s only a couple of quid but psychologically it sounds a lot cheaper. There is potentially 100M households out there and that is revenue they don’t currently have.

They need to just have one plan. One stream at a lower quality and sound. With nominal upgrade fees for more, and a discount if you take ads.

 

[I7guy]

can you recommend some good content on Netflix? The quality of Netflix recently has troubled me. Besides the reactionary Cleopatra culture war nonsense (I don't care about that), they have some documentaries of dangerously low quality, like blaming MH370 on Russia for no reason and giving conspiracy nut Graham Hancock an extra audience of millions (Conspiracy culture is a slippery slope, I'VE BEEN THERE).

I'm a sucker for documentaries that are good, but so many are of very poor quality it's honestly frustrating.

There’s a thread that is a good source for discussing your question: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/which-tv-series-are-you-binging-on.1834272/post-20550071

What we define as good or excellent may not be your take or the critics take. Similarly what the critics may like we don’t. What constitutes a “good” show/series is a very subjective.