Netflix is in hot water yet again over its newly implemented password sharing rules, which are forcing users to pay for their own accounts or face the wrath of not being able to binge their favourite shows. The agony.
The password sharing crackdown first began last year, when a new system which forces users watching outside of a Netflix account’s main household to pay a fee to be added as an account's additional user (or simply make their own account) was rolled out in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. Then, earlier this year, the same rules were implemented in Spain, Canada, Portugal and New Zealand, and this week, the crackdown finally spread to the U.S. and UK. Those who don’t pay the price will risk their account being blocked.
Take a look at this behind the scenes footage from Stranger Things’ fourth season (beware of spoilers).
Given that Netflix itself once proclaimed that “love is sharing a password”, the streaming giant is unsurprisingly facing some serious backlash from this decision - thousands of users have reportedly cancelled in protest. Now, as Dexerto reports, even Blockbuster has joined in to roast the company.
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“A friendly reminder that when you used to rent videos from us. We didn’t care who you shared it with… As long as you returned it on time,” the official Blockbuster account tweeted, tagging Netflix in the post.
Prime Video has also been firing shots at the streaming platform - yesterday, it tweeted an image of the “who’s watching?” screen, in which the names of the users spell out “everyone who has our password”.
Obviously, Netflix expected some level of backlash - in fact, it previously stated that it expected to see a “cancel reaction” to the rules. Even so, it was confident that it’d pay off in the long run: “As borrower households begin to activate their own standalone accounts and extra member accounts are added, we expect to see improved overall revenue, which is our goal with all plan and pricing changes,” it said.
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It remains to be seen exactly what the impact of the password sharing crackdown will be on Netflix's subscriber figures.
Topics: Netflix, TV And Film