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Topics: Netflix
Netflix's crusade to stamp out password sharing continues, and now we know the chaos that generosity is wreaking on its bottom line.
Once upon a time, Netflix said that "love is sharing a password." And, just like the showrunners of Game of Thrones, the streaming service has chosen to speedrun its character arc to totalitarianism in the last few months. That's an exaggeration, but it's funny, so we'll let it lie.
Netflix's latest announcement on the new paid sharing plan was that those in Spain, Canada, Portugal and New Zealand must set a “primary location” for their account and then they will be expected to pay on top of the original price for anyone outside of this location to use the account. The cost rises for every extra person that is added to the account. This isn't a very friendly strategy as you would therefore have to pay extra if you were away on holiday or travelling between your primary location and your work, for example.
Check out the teaser trailer for the fourth season of You, this time set in Old Blighty, here:
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"We value our members and recognize that they have many entertainment choices. A Netflix account is intended for one household and members can choose from a range of plans with different features," said Netflix in a blog post last week. "As always, we’ll refine these new features based on member feedback so that we continue to improve Netflix in the years ahead."
While the consensus seems to suggest that users would stop watching Netflix over shelling out for their own accounts, you see why Netflix is so hard-nosed about this. Based on Netflix's own estimate that over 100 million people are sharing accounts, UNILAD states that the streaming service could be making almost $1 billion more if all of those people started their own accounts on the basic tier that costs $9.99.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. There's nothing to show that users are going to fall in line with Netflix's new plans, especially when the status quo has been working so well for them.