Netflix to Expand Crackdown on Password Sharing in Q1 2023

[9594864]

The intelligent people understand this:

The more people who share accounts means that Netflix makes less money. If Netflix makes less money that means Netflix makes less content. If Netflix makes less content then the users paying full-price get less content.

A non-thinker would retort: dude you’re crazy, Netflix is just going to keep all the money. However, it’s not a 1:1 situation, like they believe. It is factually true that Netflix would spend more money on content if they suddenly had 500million more revenue.

Some portion of users will cancel Netflix from this, but they’ll also get more revenue so you aren’t going to beat Netflix.

Netflix is the best streaming service and will remain so. They have by far the most content, the most new content, and the greatest variety of content.

 

[9594864]

Interested how this will go, as this could very well backfire. In my case I have seen everything I want to see on Netflix and would probably cancel.

Netflix adds by far the most new content and it’s far better than the other services.

Just added the Knives Out sequel and later this year Murder Mystery 2 and Extraction 2.

Disney+ is just garbage boring superheroes and star wars trash.

HBO just dropped tons of their content when discovery merged and they only have a few good shows too.

 

[Solomani]

Interested how this will go, as this could very well backfire. In my case I have seen everything I want to see on Netflix and would probably cancel.

You know what's even more interesting? AppleTV+, Disney+, AmazonPrime, Hulu and other streaming companies may do exactly what Netflix is doing: Draconian crackdown on password/account sharing. They could go to extremes, like forcefully locking out legit "sharers" without warning from even attempting to log in, or possibly suspending and threatening to suspend the Owner Accounts.

Netflix is just the first to crack down. Unless there is a massive de-subscription backlash to Netflix... then the likely outcome will be: "Netflix succeeded in this endeavor. Other streamers will copy."

 

[tridley68]

Glad I told Netflix to stuff it when I first herd this and went with a jail broken Fire stick and haven't looked back

 

[madebybela]

Latin American countries thrived on piracy before, so LMAO at them expecting this to go over well there

 

[CalfCanuck]

So my daughter in college won’t be able to use our family account? I was mulling getting rid of Netflix for the last couple of weeks. Netflix may have made the decision for me.

Well, an easy way for them to check is if she sometimes accesses Netflix (using the same MAC address, such as on a laptop or iPad) at your home as well as at her dorm. Even if there are ten or fifteen MAC addresses that access via the same account at multiple locations, they might only need one to travels back and forth to consider the account valid.

We'll see how this shakes out. I suspect the bigger issue that Netflix is looking for are multiple IP locations used for access, with NO common devices used in both locations.

 

[Student of Life]

The intelligent people understand this:

The more people who share accounts means that Netflix makes less money. If Netflix makes less money that means Netflix makes less content. If Netflix makes less content then the users paying full-price get less content.

A non-thinker would retort: dude you’re crazy, Netflix is just going to keep all the money. However, it’s not a 1:1 situation, like they believe. It is factually true that Netflix would spend more money on content if they suddenly had 500million more revenue.

Some portion of users will cancel Netflix from this, but they’ll also get more revenue so you aren’t going to beat Netflix.

Netflix is the best streaming service and will remain so. They have by far the most content, the most new content, and the greatest variety of content.

I dont think anyone has ever said Netflix is making too little content. They do quantity not quality and hope somethings become a hit. Sometimes it works like Stranger Things and Wednesday, most of the times it doesnt. The biggest issue for Netflix is the lack of IP. Netflix started out as the middle man and got content from everyone in one place, now most providers have their own streaming services and have taken back their products. Quantity over quality, not sure that's a winning strategy to be honest.

 

[Solomani]

Latin American countries thrived on piracy before, so LMAO at them expecting this to go over well there

If the country's population typically thrives on piracy, then Netflix can say: "That country earns us ZERO revenue and profits, they are all a bunch of non-paying pirates. Screw them."

 

[Dan From Canada]

My daughter is on the other side of the country going to university. She cannot share our family account?

 

[I7guy]

I agree 100%, horrible optics to say "love is sharing a password" one day and crack down on the practice the next, really, really bad, again I agree.

BUT

It doesn't change the fact that they changed their minds. People do it all the time.

In my opinion "love is sharing a password" is a slogan. The same way "what happens on the iphone stays on the iphone" is a slogan. As a matter of objective fact, connecting to a cell tower renders that slogan false and it's outside of Apple's control. The current Netflix TOS does use the term household and I don't believe they intended this password to be used by multiple people not connected with the household. They wanted you to share the password, liberally with your household (however, they define it). And now people are upset that they decided to enforce their existing TOS.

Wordsmithing. If you get account credentials from a friend and view Netflix content for free any reasonable person would call that theft.

Yup!

 

[9594864]

I dont think anyone has ever said Netflix is making too little content. They do quantity not quality and hope somethings become a hit. Sometimes it works like Stranger Things and Wednesday, most of the times it doesnt. The biggest issue for Netflix is the lack of IP. Netflix started out as the middle man and got content from everyone in one place, now most providers have their own streaming services and have taken back their products. Quantity over quality, not sure that's a winning strategy to be honest.

Quantity is all that matters in entertainment so firstly you’re completely mistaken there.

Why is quantity all that matters? Because entertainment is highly subjective. One demographic likes X thing another demo likes Y, etc etc.

Now, what happens in entertainment is you very rarely land on something that is highly popular to all. The best way to hit those things is to make as much content as you can. Every human only likes about 1% or less of all content ever produced. Each human likes different things in the totality of all content and this is why the more quantity the more you please all customers AND the more likely you hit one of those extremely rare products that everyone loves.

Now, when we look at Apple TV+ what we see is a deeply flawed idea. They produce next to no content AND they are going for ‘prestigious’ content, which is to say that they want awards for their ‘art’. Hate to break it to those morons but the greatest entertainment doesn’t come from the award winners. You don’t see marvel films winning many awards hahah.

The other streaming services just don’t produce enough good content and by the way Netflix has WAAAY more great content than the other services. I can list the shows and films if you need me to but it’s just the truth.

 

[I7guy]

My daughter is on the other side of the country going to university. She cannot share our family account?

I'm going to guess if your daughter access Netflix from a mobile device there won't be any issues.

However, accessing Netflix from a smart TV might cause an issue.

 

[I7guy]

[...]

Netflix does need to make a (big) profit, where these other companies don’t. The only way to do that is by having some amazing exclusive content. Which they don’t really have enough of imo.

My wife disagrees with the above.

 

[bdub786]

Assuming they’re going through with enforcing the household TOS, Netflix should update and simplify their pricing tiers. The problem is there is not a universally “fair” pricing structure.

Today, two example audiences of Netflix’s 4K subscription could be one person who wants to watch 4K content but must pay for 4 licenses (which they feel is unfair), or a family of four that wants to be able to watch their own content simultaneously at below 4K quality but must pay for 4K quality (which they feel is unfair).

If Netflix made it $10/stream, then people would argue it’s unfair that a single individual pays $10 per user, but a household of five individuals watching the same content together on a TV pays $2 per user.

If Netflix made is $10 up to five users in the same household, then single people would again argue that they’re getting an unfair deal.

If Netflix removes the household clause (or continues to ignore noncompliance), then people will continue to share passwords. Netflix as a publicly traded company would eventually have no way to increase revenue in a saturated market other than to increase price to customers, which customers wouldn’t want.

Although there isn’t a perfect answer, Netflix has failed miserably at rolling out whichever change they decide to make. Reed Hastings is on record in interviews and his own book saying Netflix knows, doesn’t care, and even encourages password sharing because it has led to rapid growth. So to suddenly enforce the long ignored household TOS in any way that increases the cost to hundreds of millions of your customers while implying they have been thieves and deserve to be punished with higher prices is objectively stupid. Alternatively, if they come out and say, “to fully comply with licenses governing content we share with you, we sadly need to enforce the household TOS, and as a way of saying thank you for your understanding, our pricing is now $9.99/household at all resolutions including 4K, up to 4 simultaneous streams from your household and any device that has connected to your home network and used Netflix in the last seven days.” (Or something to that effect). Then people would be way more receptive AND you might draw new users who were previously turned off by the laughably higher price compared to alternative streaming services.

Again, there is no perfect answer…

 

[bLackjackj]

Easy, I am the paying subscriber. The only reason I tolerate Netflix

I don't even have to read any more. You are a paying subscriber. Whether or not you "tolerate" it and for whatever reason, makes absolutely no difference. Everytime I hear the Netflix tears I laugh,..as Netflix continues to invest in product and pump out subs worldwide.

 

[bLackjackj]

The “password sharing crackdown” looks like the greed of man but is actually a gift from God. Save your money; better yet, save your time. Turn off your TV and see where boredom takes you.

Everybody is all talk. I keep hearing the cancellation mob, who always whine,..but NEVER cancel! Lol Even some complaining now, complained previously and STILL subscribe. If you don't like the offer, LEAVE and show Netflix!

 

[bLackjackj]

So my daughter in college won’t be able to use our family account? I was mulling getting rid of Netflix for the last couple of weeks. Netflix may have made the decision for me.

Oh please,..bring out the violin, Lol ....so just do it. If a couple of dollars a month is really that unafordable, then please cancel for the sake of your family.

 

[bLackjackj]

Final step: All content goes pay-per-view?

It already is,..that IS the subscription model.

 

[trip1ex]

be interesting to see what happens with kids in college. Kind of dumb if, as soon as they move to college, they have to get their own Netflix when total usage on the family account won't change. I'm sure we won't get a discount for less usage with 1 kid gone.

I wonder how draconian their algorithm will be for determining an extra charge is needed.


I always figured the whole 1, 2 or 4 simultaneous streams covered different numbers of people and location had little to nothing to do with it. I mean why does it matter if a person shares the 4 simultaneous stream plan with a 2nd person?

They should charge one flat fee and then extra for each profile/simul stream for everyone. And make it more for 4k or cheaper for SD.

The way they do it now pretty much encourages a single person to share their account if they want 4k.
...

 

[GabooN]

Well, an easy way for them to check is if she sometimes accesses Netflix (using the same MAC address, such as on a laptop or iPad) at your home as well as at her dorm. Even if there are ten or fifteen MAC addresses that access via the same account at multiple locations, they might only need one to travels back and forth to consider the account valid.

We'll see how this shakes out. I suspect the bigger issue that Netflix is looking for are multiple IP locations used for access, with NO common devices used in both locations.

When I go between our house and our apartment (partner was assigned two hours away for work, so we had to get a second place) every weekend, I don’t watch on a laptop or phone, I watch on smart tv/fire stick. We have two at each place. So now I may need to pay extra to stay logged in and watch Tv on the weekends it seems. So the four tvs are always in their set location, no movement.

 

[UnusedLoginID]

If Disney can offer 4K, 6 seats and better content at 1/2 the price so can Netflix.

Not quite... Disney owns the content, Netflix for the most part does not. They're just a "pipe" for existing content. And that's their problem, they can't go too low in price and since others (Disney+, Peacock+, Paramount+) are going rogue, and are probably raising prices to them, they're in dire straits. What's they're trying to do is a last ditch effort to keep their stock value high, but don't be surprised if it tanks soon... very soon.

 

[Solomani]

Everybody is all talk. I keep hearing the cancellation mob, who always whine,..but NEVER cancel! Lol Even some complaining now, complained previously and STILL subscribe. If you don't like the offer, LEAVE and show Netflix!

It's the younger generation. They subscribe to 9 different things (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney+, etc). That's on top of REAL utility bills (like the local electric bill) which everyone needs to live and survive daily urban life. And then they wonder why they don't have enough money left to pay off their monthly credit card bills. Or they "can't afford" to invest even 2% of their salary into their employer's (Matching!) 401k plan. 🤷‍♂️

 

[4odomi]

Netflix today said that it plans to roll out paid sharing "more broadly" in the first quarter of 2023, expanding a crackdown on Netflix accounts that are shared between multiple households.

In a Q4 shareholder letter explaining the changes [PDF], Netflix says that widespread account sharing undermines its ability to invest in and improve the service.
Based on testing in Latin America, Netflix says that it is anticipating "some cancel reaction" in each market where paid sharing is introduced, but an overall improvement in revenue is expected as "borrower households" activate standalone accounts and as extra member accounts are added. According to Netflix, an estimated 222 million paying households share passwords with an additional 100 million households that could be monetized.

Netflix will require people who share accounts with others outside of their household to pay to do so. Add-on payments have already rolled out in some Latin American countries, with Netflix charging around $3 extra for an additional non-household user. A report from The Wall Street Journal in December suggested Netflix could charge just under $6.99 for account sharing in the United States.

Netflix plans to enforce password sharing rules through IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity.

The terms of service for Netflix have never allowed for multi-household sharing, but Netflix has allowed the practice for so long that implementing fees for offering account access to friends and family could upset some subscribers.

Pricing on Netflix plans includes watching on multiple supported devices in addition to affecting streaming quality, but Netflix does not want multiple viewers using the same account unless they live together. Netflix's premium plan, for example, allows for Ultra HD 4K streaming and support for watching on four supported devices like iPhones, iPads, and Macs at one time, but in the future, access will be limited to people in the same home.

Article Link: Netflix to Expand Crackdown on Password Sharing in Q1 2023

I pay £15.99 to watch the service on 4 devises, I spent 50% of my time at my partners house and watch it there as well, Netflix should have a real good think about it, obviously someone paying for one or even 2 devices, should possibly pay a extra for sharing, but not someone with a Premium plan. Netflix Premium plan is twice as expensive as any of the other services already 😏

 

[4odomi]

I guess all those families with kids in College getting screwed! What if people travel a lot? They can't lack down to one IP address.

It's quite easy, they just check with your service provider, who's on the contract and at which address, Youtube do the same on their family plans as do Apple, which is why I cancelled both, as I'm at my partners house, 50/60% of my time, I will cancel for sure if the Brin that in, especially as I pay for 4 simultaneous users £15'99 a month which is more than double with any other service provider

 

[madebybela]

If the country's population typically thrives on piracy, then Netflix can say: "That country earns us ZERO revenue and profits, they are all a bunch of non-paying pirates. Screw them."

ok, they can still pirate the stuff lol