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Netflix Testing Add-On Payment for People Who Share Accounts Outside Their Households
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Yeah.... I already got rid of my Netflix subscription years ago. I'm one of those people the service seems to dislike because I only watch it when friends of mine give me their account credentials as a favor, in return for some computer service work I did for them or what-not.
I get why they think they're missing out on a big revenue stream from all the people like me. But I'm positive they'll find the math doesn't work out at all like they think, if they crack down on this.
This reminds me a LOT of the old software piracy arguments. Companies used to try SO hard to stop people from copying software to share with others, pretending each copy was a "lost sale" and that they were damaged by that amount. In reality, people only have so much disposable income to spend on entertainment or even useful applications! Anyone who "pirates" 100 games, utilities or software apps really would never have purchased all 100 of them if getting the free copy was no longer possible. In most cases, they wouldn't have purchased any of them anyway, or *maybe* only 2 or 3. There's obviously no way to know for sure -- but on the whole, this is the behavior anyone can observe and it's just common sense.
Meanwhile, even the people who obtain the content for free will recommend it to others if they found it enjoyable or useful. So it actually helps from the marketing/advertising angle.
Just the other day, I previewed a dozen or so of the newer shows on Netflix and other than a single stand-up comedy show, I didn't have enough interest in any of them to commit the time to watching them. If they force my friends to pay extra just to be able to share a login with me? I doubt it'd even be worth my money to compensate them for that price difference.
This is why the “first” often loses the longevity battle.
Netflix proved the concept, now the owners of the desirable content and the vast back catalogs are doing their own streaming with exclusive licensing and leaving Netflix out.
10 years from now, Netflix will be Blockbuster.
Netflix proved the concept, now the owners of the desirable content and the vast back catalogs are doing their own streaming with exclusive licensing and leaving Netflix out.
10 years from now, Netflix will be Blockbuster.
? I voted, had car insurance and had a driver license in college registered to my school PO box.
Strictly speaking you've speculated on what they might do in terms of discerning legitimate use vs password-sharing.
We have no idea if they'll do that.
They might not.
Consider that Hulu Live TV doesn't allow using tv-connected devices anywhere other than your home location*. That made them a non-starter for serving our home and cabin. We use YoutubeTV instead.
(*) last I checked
The only I see them implementing is when by active streams and not addresses, based on how many are watching Netflix at the same time with different profiles. You might have to suck it up and use the same profile, because let’s face it, they are testing it in Central America and south because there’s no way to geo fence an address since they don’t have the same postal service and zip code system there like we do here..
So they fingerprint each device and trace those instead of IP address? That would be a huge breach of privacy...
The amount of money being spent on streaming will at some point necessate price increases. My biggest issue here is if Netflix DOES do this they need to decouple the amount of screens and the resolution. I don’t want to pay for 4 screens that can’t be shared but I do want 4K.
Yeah, Netflix is pretty weak. The only reason I still have it is due to my Tmobile plan giving it for free. Like most services, the best use is to subscribe for a month, watch all the content you can, cancel it and move to another. The basic idea of the "cutting the cord" was to save money but the fragmentation of services, is actually making the entire thing more expensive. No thanks.
The account is for a household living in 1 house. So sure, if they all live under the same roof.... And I mean, I swear I don't password share with friends for a multitude of streaming services (**crosses fingers**).
Netflix really needs to bite me though. The reality is NO ONE is subscribing to every service at once. If you're spot, you hop, binge, cancel, and have a cadence of jumping services. Sharing passwords actually helps with subscriber numbers, which some streamers acknowledge as a complex part of the problem because they know cracking down will have blow back.
YouTube TV isn't technically a streamer, but they charge $10 a month for 4K (and outside of a few sports channels, they have no 4K content), but Netflix also includes more simultaneous streams per account with that plan too where many services cut you off at 2.
If they push this I'll just cancel till stranger things or the next season of the witcher, do a month, and cancel again. Honestly, Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu and freaking Paramount + at this point seem to have better original content. Amazon in particular with Reacher, Wheel of Time, Upload, and hopefully Lord of the Rings is really knocking it out of the park.
Same here... though Netflix has been testing this new thing randomly where if someone goes to watch something, they are prompted to enter a code sent to the phone of the account owner. They are really looking at ways to crack down. I keep waiting for that to happen to me. I share my account with 3 other people.
They are testing ways to catch people.... but their Algorithm looks at frequency and device. Tablets and phones don't flag, but TV sets do. So if the main account is at 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Houston, and a TV in Pittsburgh it regularly watching that will trigger it. BUT.... they are randomly testing features to bust people and not consistently doing it to everyone (they send the account owner a text with a code but the person in Pittsburgh gets the ntoice on their TV and has limited time to enter, and repeated failures will lock that account or something.)
My ex lives long distance and was using my YouTube TV account which is technically allowed (3 people) but because he was in a different State, it blocked him after 30 days. In the fine print, has to be in the same local TV service area.
I don't blame these services for trying to crack down on password shareres (of which I'm very guilty), but it does suck!
Correct, never mind the fact that it's already monetized by saying you pay this much to use on x
As another macrumors forum member mentioned, different countries have different definitions of a “Household”.
All the good show I've watched in the last month are on AppleTV+ and in 4K for a cheap price. If they will increase price again in my country I will close my account.
So dumb. Spotify is the same way. They actually at one point tried to add gps tracking in the app to make sure that everyone in the family really was in the same household. That obviously didn't go anywhere since they got immediate backlash. Now they just have you enter your home address for each person that signs up. I don't know what happens if someone enters a different address. They still get the money at the end of the day though. I don't see the difference if we're all in the same house or in different parts of the same city or wherever really.
Edit: Also, they're called "Family" plans, not "Shared Household" plans... where do they even get off?
Edit: Also, they're called "Family" plans, not "Shared Household" plans... where do they even get off?
Funny you should mention that. I signed up for Netflix in late 2010. At the time, I was a graduate student living away from home, but I wanted to share with my parents and younger brother, so I was that guy who actually read through Netflix's terms of use to see whether such sharing was permitted. After all, the IRS, DMS, voter registration, and plenty of other places treated us as living at the same address/in the same household, despite not sharing a roof for 9+ months of the year.
Anyway, at least back then their definition of "household" was broad enough to permit such sharing, so I shared with my brother and parents with a clear conscious. Since then, however, I've been unable to find that same language when looking for it again, so it's clear to me that their policies have shifted over time.
So what? Why does it matter? To you specifically? (it obviously matters to Netflix because they're trying to squeeze out as much money as possible. Yay capitalism)
5 screen limit=5 persons can watch at the same time.
Shared account among 5 people = 5 people watch at different times. If they don't watch at the same time, it could theoretically be the same person traveling and watching 5 times at 5 different places at different times for all you know. It becomes *one* entity watching.
Why does it matter where those 5 people physically are? Who they are?
At the end, 5 people watch, 1 person pays, either way.
I literally don't get it.
Netflix trying to recover some of its massive debt now that competitors like disney and amazon are building decent bases