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Netflix May Soon Crack Down on Password Sharing

Now people are arguing over the definition of a household LOL

For someone such as myself as a single individual and not sharing my account I should not have to pay more for the same services. I should not have to pay more for those who are abusing the service. Furthermore Netflix has been raising their prices for years now while the content has pretty much stayed the same.

as a consumer I have a choice and the choice is to cancel the service.
 
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rmhop81 said:
who said that? we said the reason the price is going up is bc everyone shares accounts. it's not rocket science what is happening right now. all the people complaining are the ones that share accounts.
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People have always shared accounts so that isn’t the reason prices are going up. Netflix have just realised how many of their viewers are borrowing logins. Not all the people complaining are those people either. There’s a few here who are the subscribers who have admitted to lending out their details. I do just that with my family.
 
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The-Real-Deal82 said:
People have always shared accounts so that isn’t the reason prices are going up. Netflix have just realised how many of their viewers are borrowing logins. Not all the people complaining are those people either. There’s a few here who are the subscribers who have admitted to lending out their details. I do just that with my family.
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Netflix all the sudden realized in 2021 that people are sharing accounts?
 
class77 said:
I am the "owner" and I have it at my house, my vacation home and my mother with dementia's house when I sit with her over there at least 3 times a week. I pay for multiple streams, so why shouldn't I be entitled to use it all those places??
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Exactly. I would be in the same use case as you if I watched Netflix—vacations, away doing elder care (my respects to you, my mother’s got dementia as well).

I can see plenty of legitimate use cases that involve accessing the account away from one’s primary residence. I wonder how they’re going to enforce their policy without infuriating customers in good standing.
 
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GrumpyMom said:
Exactly. I would be in the same use case as you if I watched Netflix—vacations, away doing elder care (my respects to you, my mother’s got dementia as well).

I can see plenty of legitimate use cases that involve accessing the account away from one’s primary residence. I wonder how they’re going to enforce their policy without infuriating customers in good standing.
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My guess is Netflix is/has developed some machine learning algorithms and know the difference in the ip addresses between wifi and lte/5g. They are looking for patterns where "sharing" seems to be prevalent across wifi ip addresses.

But I agree they are going to anger people with this. And I wonder if it's more directed toward what happens on college campuses and such, and to see how many different ip addresses connect using that one account. If both my kids, who live outside of the household access my Netflix account, is netflix going to care? And especially if my account supports 4 multiple streams?

Or, does netflix care that someone with a Netflix account is letting multiple random people use that one Netflix account. Hard to tell the intent.
 
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This company is turning evil like Google and Facebook.

And why is a Mac Rumors website reporting on a video streaming service?
 
I7guy said:
My guess is Netflix is/has developed some machine learning algorithms and know the difference in the ip addresses between wifi and lte/5g. They are looking for patterns where "sharing" seems to be prevalent across wifi ip addresses.

But I agree they are going to anger people with this. And I wonder if it's more directed toward what happens on college campuses and such, and to see how many different ip addresses connect using that one account. If both my kids, who live outside of the household access my Netflix account, is netflix going to care? And especially if my account supports 4 multiple streams?

Or, does netflix care that someone with a Netflix account is letting multiple random people use that one Netflix account. Hard to tell the intent.
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You make excellent points. I think there definitely is a problem of abuse going on. But there to me is a grey area where people’s concept of household equates with their concept of family, as in dependent children in dorms or with other custodial parents; or account sharing with siblings or parents. Or account sharing with roommates. Or customers living the road warrior or RV life. It’s going to be interesting to see how Netflix navigates the nuances to get the optimum result for their business while keeping customers content. We know they’re got the letter of the law well covered and in their favor. The spirit of it (cracking down on blatant abuses) is what I think they really want to enforce.
 
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GrumpyMom said:
You make excellent points. I think there definitely is a problem of abuse going on. But there to me is a grey area where people’s concept of household equates with their concept of family, as in dependent children in dorms or with other custodial parents; or account sharing with siblings or parents. Or account sharing with roommates. Or customers living the road warrior or RV life. It’s going to be interesting to see how Netflix navigates the nuances to get the optimum result for their business while keeping customers content. We know they’re got the letter of the law well covered and in their favor. The spirit of it (cracking down on blatant abuses) is what I think they really want to enforce.
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Considering this is a test, I am going to guess that Netflix is going to be VERY cautious in how far they cast this net. Like I7Guy said, there is a lot of grey area in sharing.

Netflix is not dumb. They aren't going to roll this out and risk losing a lot of subscribers. If they lose a few subscribers that were accounts shared among large groups of people, it is probably worth it. Losing a subscriber that shares their password with their mom and dad in next town over? Probably not worth it.
 
CJ Dorschel said:
Now people are arguing over the definition of a household LOL

For someone such as myself as a single individual and not sharing my account I should not have to pay more for the same services. I should not have to pay more for those who are abusing the service. Furthermore Netflix has been raising their prices for years now while the content has pretty much stayed the same.

as a consumer I have a choice and the choice is to cancel the service.
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you don’t have to, you can pay for a single stream.
 
Bro KV said:
They raise the prices because they can and people will pay. Nothing to do with account sharing.
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also because they’re trying to basically fund rapidly building up a back catalog that competes with Paramount/CBS, Disney/Hulu/Marvel/Pixar/Lucasfilm, Warner Bros/DC/HBO/Studio Ghibli, and replacing the content that NBC took back for Peacock.

They used to have content from all those sources, but as the others have decided to compete they’ve lost it so they’re funding new shows and movies at record speed, and that takes a lot of money
 
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So I’ve been on a Verizon “family” plan since forever with my best friend since like 2007? My point is, Verizon started noticing that people were collecting on Family plans so they changed the way their family plans worked and now every line pays for its “way” so to speak instead of a lump sum data plan.

Seems like that’s the way to go? I always saw the tiers as ... STREAMS at once instead of “family” or “whatever” - I was paying for the # of streams I could do at once. So I’ve always paid for the highest tier... $18.99 for 4 streams ain’t bad. That’s more generous than most other streaming services, granted they’re getting kinda expensive now but we’re happy with the content so far.

Me, my wife, my mother-in-law. We’ve never had a problem. Then again we don’t go sharing our Netflix account info with a ton of people (I’ve seen this happen).
 
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ian87w said:
So from your logic, if you or any of your family members are out for work or traveling and want to watch Netflix, you/they should have a separate subscription since your/they are not in the house.
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That's not what I said. As long as they come from the same household the bill payer lives then there's not a problem is there?
 
ian87w said:
It's not entitlement if one already paid for the advertised features and use it. Netflix is the one offering the 4 simultaneous screens.

As long as the devices used are all properly authenticated, why is it a problem?
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It's a problem because people are sharing subscriptions across multiple households.

I don't make the rules here, I can only state the issue and why Netflix are doing what they are doing.
 
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Malus120 said:
I don't hate Netflix or think they shouldn't get paid. They produce a lot of great content (but they also lost Marvel which while not their fault per se, still sucks...). But the aggressive price raising in what is quickly becoming a crowded market is untenable. Streaming is beginning to resemble Cable in that you can either be stuck paying $60~$80+ month for "everything," or you can overpay to "unbundle" (just pay for one or two services.)

Bring 4K to the standard "two screen" sub, and lower the price to the OG $10 (or even $12) per month. At the very least do something significant to add additional value if you're going to leave prices where they are (or more likely raise them again) AND crack down.
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Netflix is $15 billion dollars in the red, and every whole year for the last few have gone four billion further in the red.

Netflix sold their service at a loss for years, which is the genuinely untenable thing. You don't like Netflix's price rises, but subscriber numbers show the general public don't agree with you.

And yes, Disney are pricing their service at below cost currently in order to generate growth. But in the end that service will also need to be $30+ per month to stay in business. The current pricing is a loss leader.
 
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The Phazer said:
Netflix is $15 billion dollars in the red, and every whole year for the last few have gone four billion further in the red.

Netflix sold their service at a loss for years, which is the genuinely untenable thing. You don't like Netflix's price rises, but subscriber numbers show the general public don't agree with you.

And yes, Disney are pricing their service at below cost currently in order to generate growth. But in the end that service will also need to be $30+ per month to stay in business. The current pricing is a loss leader.
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I'm not sure that's quite accurate, according to NYT as of Q4 2020, "The company will still have $10 billion to $15 billion in debt, but it said it now made enough revenue to pay back those loans while maintaining its immense content budget."
Look I'm no expert, and I'm certainly not saying Netflix doesn't face a challenging competitive landscape.

The problem with $30 / month pricing is that, as you said, Netflix and the rest of the streaming industry have sold subscriptions at ~$10 for roughly a decade and this has set a expectations about how much those services/contents are worth. Thus when prices are raised (especially in roundabout ways such charing more for 4K or giving you "4" screens but cutting off "sharing") it begins to feel like a bait and switch.
It's true, most of us are willing to stomach $15 / month for what is, admittedly great original content (+ a large library of non Netflix produced content). But as more and more players jump into the industry, we're already seeing streaming fatigue, where what was once a promise of "cut the cord, pay $10 a month, watch what you want" is increasingly becoming subscribe to two, or three, or five different streaming services to watch what you want... with each service gradually raising the price... until you're paying $70 or even $100+ per month... at which point (price-wise) we're back where we were with cable (albeit admittedly with better content).

Also, these services also have to contend with the risk that, aside from just flat out piracy, if things get too expensive, people will just subscribe for a short period of time, watch what they want, cancel, and then rinse repeat. Sure they may get "$30 / month" but if they're only getting that 2 months out of the year... that's still a lot worse than $10~$15 / month for 12 months.

Just to be clear though, I'm not demanding Netflix keep prices where they are, I
 
Puonti said:
Dang cliffhanger. I guess I'll have to watch the next episode, too.
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ROFL.... whoops... That ended up being... on the nose :D

I guess what I was trying to conclude with was:
1. Netflix's financial position isn't actually bad as of Q4 2020. They're now making a profit, and have positive cash flow to both pay down their debt and continue original content creation at their desired pace.
2. In previous years, it wasn't so much Netflix offering their service at a loss, so much as investing in the infrastructure neccesasry to transform from a company that was just a platform for other people's media, to a rich content creation service that also happens to offer a large back catalog from other sources.
3. Netflix is free to raise their prices but they should be clear about how and why (don't bait and switch with a low introductory price... where you can't watch 4K in 2021), and be aware that people may well decide to leave (and or pirate) or only sub part time.

Anyway, for the most part I really enjoy Netflix. I just feel if they're going to cut out "sharing," they need to go about it in a fair and transparent way, and they should fix their pricing structure so it makes more sense for individuals (don't upsell me four screens when I only need one or two).
 
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