Sharing is Caring......or not.. at least according to Netflix, pay up.

[Arika]

Summary

In a someone controversial, but also entirely unsurprising move, Netflix has decided to crack down on password sharing. Paid for a higher plan specifically so you could share with your parents or friends? better hope they live in the same household as you. it's currently only relegated to a few countries, so you might be safe...for now.

 

Quotes

Quote

The streaming service will soon launch a test aimed at cracking down on password-sharing outside of a user’s household, Variety first reported Wednesday.

 

“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” Netflix said in a blog post Wednesday. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”

 

The test will start in the next few weeks in three countries: Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. The company will later evaluate whether to bring it to other markets as well.

 

The fee is 2,380 CLP ($2.98) in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN ($2.11) in Peru. Netflix notes this is cheaper than if the secondary users had gotten their own accounts.

 

Netflix prohibits password-sharing in its terms and conditions, but it has been lax with enforcing the policy over the years. In 2016, the company even said it was fine with users sharing their passwords as long as they didn’t sell them.

In recent years, though, Netflix has taken greater action against the practice.

 

Last year, the company tested a prompt on viewers using accounts owned by people outside their households. It read, “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.” Users were then asked to either verify the account with a text or email code or to start their own Netflix trial.

 

My thoughts

I love the line of "The company will later evaluate whether to bring it to other markets as well." There is no doubt in my mind that they wont, because otherwise they are essentially still saying "hey, just don't do it *wags finger*". it may not be a fee for other countries but they will certainly find a way to at least stop people from doing it.

 

I can see where they are coming from, but when the wording in their pricing table is:

"Number of screens you can watch on at the same time"

it shouldn't matter where those screens are located, or who owns those screens. no mention of how often the fee will be charged, but if it's monthly just get those other people sharing your account to pay your fee and they get a super cheap account. It's like 2 steps forward 2 sTePs ʞƆ∀q

 

Doesn't affect me though, i got rid of my netflix a while ago so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Sources

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/netflix-will-soon-test-charging-fee-sharing-passwords-outside-households-2022-3?r=US&IR=T

[whispous]

It will result in fewer extra subscriptions than they hope. It's expensive and people have less money now than last year.

[Needfuldoer]

They probably wouldn't have gotten so much negative press if they introduced this as a "friends and family plan" that officially allows multiple logins and costs less than an equal number of individual accounts, rather than framing it as "cracking down on account sharing".

[mr moose]

6 minutes ago, Arika S said:

 

I can see where they are coming from, but when the wording in their pricing table is:

"Number of screens you can watch on at the same time"

it shouldn't matter where those screens are located, or who owns those screens. no mention of how often the fee will be charged, but if it's monthly just get those other people sharing your account to pay your fee and they get a super cheap account. It's like 2 steps forward 2 sTePs ʞƆ∀q

 

 

 

I want to sell you an orange, we will even cut it for you for a small price, but you are not allowed to share your half with anyone else even though you already paid not only for the fruit but to have it cut and delivered. 

[Rauten]

They've kind of threatened with this multiple times in Spain, but so far, they've never actually gone through with it.

It feels like a big disconnect between shareholders and the actual management, to me.

 

We demand moar moneys!!

But if we do it, we're gonna bleed subscribers out the wazoo!!

 

If they ever actually do go through with it, their subscriptions in Spain will drop sharply - so sharp, they may cut themselves.

 

I also find it particularly scummy that they're doing this "trial run" in South America - in countries where their lower income probably means that they probably have no choice but to share the account if they want to be able to watch Netflix at all. 

[darknessblade]

With the current trend in Netflix their content and sub count, I don't think this will do any good for them.

 

It will only cause them to loose subs faster and faster. if they force you to pay "2.99$" just to use a shared account outside of that household.

 

Not forgetting, why aren't they making a cheaper single user account that has 4K support? if they do that they will get more subs, as people do not like to pay 20$+ for a account just to get 4K support. and have 3 unused accounts/screens to watch on all at once.

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Ah yes, the solution of making your service worse to try to make people buy another subscription. That works and doesn't push people towards piracy at all. 

[Levent]

What the fuck. They specify "screens" not households in their product comparison page and they also let you create users thus making it easier to share your account. If this gets rolled out globally, I will happily cancel my subscription.

[Stahlmann]

4 minutes ago, Levent said:

What the fuck. They specify "screens" not households in their product comparison page and they also let you create users thus making it easier to share your account. If this gets rolled out globally, I will happily cancel my subscription.

It doesn't lock netflix to a device if that's what you're implying. It basically says how many simultaneous streams you can have.

 

In my case the subscription will be cancelled. Netflix expects to get more subscriptions out of this, but i'd bet they lose just as many. I simply don't want to pay 18€ a month for 4K streaming. If i have to pay and use it alone, then it'll simply not be worth it anymore. Same for my friends that also use the same account.

 

But i guess piracy is still an option.

[Kisai]

53 minutes ago, Arika S said:

Summary

In a someone controversial, but also entirely unsurprising move, Netflix has decided to crack down on password sharing. Paid for a higher plan specifically so you could share with your parents or friends? better hope they live in the same household as you. it's currently only relegated to a few countries, so you might be safe...for now.

 

 

This kind of stupid.

 

The problem isn't "password sharing" the problem is "passwords remain on devices when the person who signed in doesn't care"

 

Look, I haven't seen my mom in 3 years, My Netflix password is in her smart TV, and I gave her permission to use it. She will use it far more than I will. I watch Netflix maybe 2-3 times a month. I couldn't remove it even if I wanted to unless I reset the password, and then if I reset the password, I have to go reset it on all my devices. What a damn pain.

 

If Netflix really wanted to solve this problem, they would do what -everyone else- has done and allow one "parent" account create child accounts, and the child accounts get locked to their devices via parental controls.  If a friend/roommate/parent is the one using it, and you're mad at them, you can just disable their device from your account, rather than having to reset the password and inconvenience yourself.

 

[abit-sean]

I can see this being an issue for a lot of family's. As my kids get older and move out they will want to keep access to all the subscriptions that I pay for but under most use policies I should really cut them off from spotify, Netlix, Sky and possibly prime. I think even the phone plan is based on everyone living under one roof.

 

What am I meant to do. Just say sorry kids welcome to real world get your own subscriptions?

[Arika]

10 minutes ago, abit-sean said:

What am I meant to do. Just say sorry kids welcome to real world get your own subscriptions?

According to Netfux, yup

[Fasauceome]

14 minutes ago, Kisai said:

If Netflix really wanted to solve this problem,

Makes you think about what they're really trying to solve

[Kisai]

8 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Makes you think about what they're really trying to solve

They're probably getting feedback/whine from the hollywood (and only hollywood) that they mistakenly believe that everyone shares passwords (as opposed to pirating the content.)

 

They after all can't claim piracy if someone is paying for it.

 

[Forbidden Wafer]

Ditch all the streaming services until they stop this nonsense and come back with a StreamingAnywhere, where you can watch everything with a single subscription. 

[leadeater]

This is not the first time Netflix has done this, or attempted to. I use my Netflix account in two different houses, legitimately, and never been stung by any of the past attempts Netflix has made to crack down on this. If they ever do hit me up then I'm quite ready to slap them down. I own and paid for every device my account is used on and I'm the one that uses it.

[dizmo]

Haha, of all the thread titles I've seen in the News forum in the past year or do, this is is probably my fav. 

 

This doesn't surprise me, though I do think if they enforce this they'll have to change their marketing. It IS in the User Agreement that usage is restricted to use in your own household, though. 

 

Quote

4.2. The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household. During your Netflix membership we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access the Netflix service and Netflix content. Except for the foregoing, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.

I imagine they've done their research, will do more before this is rolled out, and the amount of people they lose because of this isn't that high. If anything they'll just put in a very small price increase, and they'll cover the few that leave over the user base. 

 

Personally, I'm fine with it. I'd rather this then see them drastically limit the number of screens that you can use it on. Which wouldn't affect me, but would affect families that use it. 

2 hours ago, Levent said:

What the fuck. They specify "screens" not households in their product comparison page and they also let you create users thus making it easier to share your account. If this gets rolled out globally, I will happily cancel my subscription.

The user agreement says otherwise (but who really reads that). 

2 hours ago, abit-sean said:

I can see this being an issue for a lot of family's. As my kids get older and move out they will want to keep access to all the subscriptions that I pay for but under most use policies I should really cut them off from spotify, Netlix, Sky and possibly prime. I think even the phone plan is based on everyone living under one roof.

 

What am I meant to do. Just say sorry kids welcome to real world get your own subscriptions?

I meeeean your kids should be paying their own way, subs like this are a great way to get them used to being an adult. 

[abit-sean]

20 minutes ago, dizmo said:

2 hours ago, abit-sean said:

I can see this being an issue for a lot of family's. As my kids get older and move out they will want to keep access to all the subscriptions that I pay for but under most use policies I should really cut them off from spotify, Netlix, Sky and possibly prime. I think even the phone plan is based on everyone living under one roof.

 

What am I meant to do. Just say sorry kids welcome to real world get your own subscriptions?

I meeeean your kids should be paying their own way, subs like this are a great way to get them used to being an adult. 

That great and all but they get there money from me.

[Blademaster91]

So netflix is telling people to pay more, yet they easily allow sharing through a single account, I don't see this going well as netflix has raised prices recently and making people pay more isn't going to work.

[Blademaster91]

37 minutes ago, dizmo said:

If anything they'll just put in a very small price increase

On top of their recent price increase? Yeah, no thanks.  It's almost as if these streaming companies are encouraging people to pirate content instead with raising prices and holding content exclusivity over a bunch of different services.

[Donut417]

Netflix needs to remember they are competing against piracy. Piracy cost little to no money. 

[paddy-stone]

What about if your household includes a child that lives between 2 residences. What about if you yourself watch netflix on your phone wherever you happen to be, etc. There are multiple legit reasons for people to be using accounts outside of the physical address where that account if paid for.

 

Doesn't bother me, never have been a subscriber to netfux, and never will. Same goes for most subscription based accounts, only exception for me is youtube premium as I technically live in Turkey, where it's very cheap 

[suicidalfranco]

Guys, Guys, Guys, I know that what Netflix is doing is indefensible, that no living person with a shred of common sense would take their stand, but guys, listen to me, this is the LTT forum so, obligatory,  I don't like to do it either, but I'm obliged to do it:

Spoiler

THEIR PLATFORM, THEIR RULES

 

[jagdtigger]

Yet another BS move from a greedy company, what a surprise.....

[Zodiark1593]

4 hours ago, Fasauceome said:

Makes you think about what they're really trying to solve

Trying to return to some semblance of growth to look good for shareholders?