Netflix successfully bullied a bunch of password sharers into giving them money
Subscriptions at the streaming service outpaced cancellations somehow after Netflix decided to be cops about it all
Aux News Netflix
The cold, unfeeling boot of capitalism has put a W up on the scoreboard yet again this week, as IndieWire reports—working from data provided by research firm Antenna—that Netflix’s efforts to stamp down on password sharing among its users (and their various siblings, children, friends, and pets) has resulted in a big subscriber jump for the lousy cops subscription streaming service.
Specifically, Antenna looked at average subscription rates for the service, and found that they had their biggest spike in years, more than doubling, in the days immediately after Netflix announced that it’d begin limiting shared accounts for its service based on IP address in the U.S. (After about a year of testing out similar programs in other countries.) The immediate consequence of which seems to have been people grumbling, then hitting the button to shell out for their own accounts—because otherwise their friends were just going to be insufferable about trying to talk to them about I Think You Should Leave sketches that they haven’t seen yet because they don’t have access to their mom’s account anymore. (To pick an example certainly not pulled directly from our own group chats.)
This is, at least in the short-term, good news for Netflix, which kicked off the crack down after looking around at the streaming landscape and realized it had run out of new people to get hooked on its offerings—to the point that the company’s shareholders started getting legally testy about the streamer missing subscriber projections. (And here’s our gentle reminder that the incessant pursuit of “growth” is responsible for so many lovely, non-dystopian elements of our collective lives.)
Of course, this sign-up data only tells part of the story of the password crackdown; Antenna reports that outright cancellations also increased during this same period, although not at the same rate as the sign-ups. The real question, though, is whether any of this is sustainable: After all, barging into people’s rooms, slapping the remotes out of their hands, and asking them to pony up is a trick the service can only pull once.
80 Comments
“Bullied”?
No hyperbole allowed!
I think you mean “hyperbully.” Which sounds like something from Futurama.
The two guys who came to my house were courteous when they said I could subscribe to Netflix or they’d pry off my kneecaps.
“Hired Goons?”
The other day I ordered a Big Mac and the clerk bullied me into getting a soda and fries with it.
I’m mad that this worked but relieved I didn’t arrogantly proclaim that it wouldn’t.
My faith in humanity worsens a little every day.
It’s basic math. If people are using your password service for free and Netflix stops them, you’re probably not going to give up your password service out of spite. If they fail to stop the password sharers, no one is going to notice because no one is giving up their passwords.It wouldn’t be surprising if most of the people who were part of that password dip in Canada were people who were only keeping Netflix around for someone else, decided they didn’t want it, and then the other people who were using it for free decided to pay for it.
It would have been interesting to see what the percentage split on the new subscribers between traditional subscriptions and the new ad supported tier. But that level of journalism is too much to home for these days.
I’ve yet to get any sort of notification about this. When I do, I plan on cancelling, but at least two of the households riding on my account might start up their own. Which is sort of annoying in a way, since I have half a dozen reasons to want to cancel to express my dissatisfaction with them, and I wouldn’t want me doing so to result in them getting even more money.
If you’re in the US there’s no way you haven’t gotten the account screen yet.
I don’t know what to tell you. I got something within the past year asking me to put in a zip code, which I ignored. It’s possible someone else put one in, but in any case I know it’s still being used by two of the people I’m sharing with. I haven’t gotten any email warnings or indications that the account isn’t going to work for anyone.
I suspect at this point you’re somehow still under their radar. If you make any kind of change you’ll probably see a difference quickly.
You could just decide whether to keep paying for Netflix based on whether you wanted Netflix, rather than on what message you were sending by doing so, or what purchasing decisions people other than you might make.Just an idea.
I could do a lot of things with shallow and superficial motivation, yeah. And sometimes I do. Sometimes when I’m hungry, I eat. But occasionally I take other factors into account, like whether what I’m eating is healthy for me, or if I should be buying more food to eat when I already have ingredients at home. Taking multiple things into consideration when making a decision isn’t some sort of nebbish wistfulness. It’s something everyone does all the time, and frankly still don’t do nearly often enough.If I wanted Netflix, but couldn’t afford it in my budget, I’d have at least two issues to consider, one of which actually weighted considerably more than the other. But according to you, if I want it, I should keep it, no additional thought necessary.
So tell me, what moral principle are you upholding by wanting two other households to get a service without paying for it?This isn’t like announcing you’re not going to buy conflict diamonds, or that you can’t stay at a Trump hotel. Sure, factor in morality. But this is just you being up your own ass.
I didn’t mention morality. My position on this matter is evidently not what you decided it is, and I would imagine based on your previous posts that you have decided that everyone opposite you on the subject has the same superficial argument that you imagine they do. It might behoove you to take other factors into consideration when thinking and talking, instead of just one.
Unless there’s something I’m missing, it’s a screen suggesting you should change your tier if you’re sharing with people outside your household. I got hit with one but just hit “skip” and went on with my day. I’m fairly sure it’s more social engineering than actual account crackdowns.There’s a version where you could say “when asked, people paid to keep their friends on their accounts;” like Netflix ain’t hurting for money, but there’s something “take a penny leave a penny” about it.
We got that screen, but since our house is the one who are the share-ee we of course skipped that screen. I’m now wondering if i need to reach out to the people we are sharing from and let them know that they probably need to set up their ‘household’ on Netflix
Don’t; it’s noncompulsory. It’s upselling. It’s asking if you’ll super size it.
How dare you make me pay for your for-pay service?!
Yeah, the outrage seems pretty dumb here. I mean, if it’s just anti-capitalism I get it, but with all the other sins of capitalism to choose from, that they’re choosing to get upset that the subscription service is making people pay for their service just makes them look like a selfish baby.
Yeah, it’s annoying obviously compared to the previous sweet deal, but it makes sense. I’m sure Netflix is basically at saturation point where most people have access (or did, before all this). How do you increase subscriptions other than cutting off the fact that one account can host like 5 households? It’s worth the bad PR.
I’m also not sure what the capitalism critics would say the alternative to capitalism is here. Like, should we all pay a streaming tax to the government so that streaming is available to all?
I only know that internet is a lot less in Europe. There’s no damn competition here. Of course, that’s not only internet.
If you’re saying you’re in favor of the way competition tends to lower prices, that’s an argument in favor of capitalism. “Europe” isn’t an example of an alternative to capitalism. European countries generally are, like America, capitalist countries.For what it’s worth, Europe also doesn’t seem to have lower Netflix prices. Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Denmark, France, and Sweden are among the countries where a basic Netflix subscription is most expensive.
Lol. You told Yellowfoot that they’re up their own ass. Friend, you need to climb out of your own.
You don’t have a real response to anything I said.If you’re wrong (and you were) you can just be wrong. No need to be a dipshit about it.
lol
I think their example of internet is valid, though; an internet connection is relatively costly in the states, and most markets are governed by a single monopolistic company. There’s no competition: either I pay Comcast or I settle for a less-reliable yet equally-costly local alternative.Capitalism only drives lower prices if competition is fair.
Yes, but BreadnMaters was only bringing up internet service to compare it to Netflix service, and the two aren’t analogous in that way. One thing we certainly don’t lack for in America is competition when it comes to streaming services. Indeed, the number of competitors (though probably a good thing) is actually kind of irritating.
Goalpost shifting aside, I wouldn’t call the current “streaming war” or content diaspora proof that the experiment of capitalism breeds healthy competition and decent prices; most services are in the same range price-wise (and rising), and content is so neatly and extensively split that most content you’re seeking is only available through one outlet. You put up with Max’s terrible product (app) because it’s your only choice for watching Succession. When they move Seinfeld from Hulu to Netflix, you keep both.
Judging from the comments on any AVC or Gizmodo article about a new streaming service, I think most capitalism critics here think everything ever made, plus hundreds of hours of new, original content every month should be available on one service for $9.99/month and never go up in price. Which actually yeah, sounds like a streaming tax.
I think part of the outrage is driven by the fact that Netflix isn’t actually losing money. It lost subscribers, which hurt the stock price, but according to their most recent public filings, they still made something like five billion dollars in profit last fiscal year. IIRC that was more than the year before.I don’t think a private company making five bil in cool profit would shake their own customers for more money in such an antagonistic way (though I’m probably wrong about that; call me an optimist), but Heaven forbid, the stock price went down!
But based off that I’d be more likely to be upset they aren’t putting more money into employee payroll than that they are making people pay for their service.
Well, a lot of people are just selfish.
Exactly this. I can’t share my health insurance, dental insurance, car insurance, or even go to a buffet and let someone else eat off my plate, so why do so many people think it should be ok to share a Netflix account? Contrary to popular belief, Netflix is a for-profit company. And it is probably a little (or a lot) naive, but maybe one of their recent price hikes would have been skipped if everyone using the service was actually paying for it. Yeah, I know, that is stretching it a bit.
I fully agree that the need for eternal growth is incredibly damaging. The stock market is a blight on humanity and capitalism without serious checks on it is, no hyperbole *gestures towards the climate crisis*, dooming us all.But I can’t get mad at this.
“Somehow”The somehow is exactly what we told you would happen. Keyboard crusaders are nearly always wrong about the THING that’s totally gonna take down the corporation, maaaan.
Honestly I just canceled my subscription. I wasn’t even sharing my password, just on principle I don’t have a ton of patience for a company being like “Hmm we’re losing money; I know, how about we make our service worse (by making it more expensive and difficult to share your password with friends) instead of, I don’t know, actually coming up with a way to make it better and more competitive?” Most of what’s on there either sucks or is available elsewhere anyway, and for what isn’t I can always just pirate it so whatever.
The moment they asked me to verify my real home or whatever I immediately cancelled. Sadly, one of my buddies that was sharing (as Netflix originally encouraged us to do!) then got his own subscription to I guess with less connections that was actually a net gain for these fuckers.
At the end of the day there’s no such thing as a free lunch. If you
want free movies there’s plenty of ad-driven services out there and you can always go rent a disc. I’ve yet to hear any justification for why password sharing should be allowed that isn’t either “how dare they expect I pay for a service I’m using?!” or basically the same flimsy moral justifications people use for pirating indy video games (admittedly there are somewhat valid excuses for AAA titles, ranging from abusive, intrusive borderline-malware DRM to software these days being so buggy and working so poorly on so many systems that “trying before you buy” is not unreasonable to ask for).
The justification is, if you say an account can have up to five people on it, you mean there can be up to five people on that account. Oh, you don’t like that one of those people goes off to college and another lives two cities away? Then why did you say I could have five people on the account?
see, this is actually a somewhat fair argument, one I had not heard before and I can kind of understand. I am still sympathetic to Netflix’ point that people are abusing the system and they ruined it for everyone, content is not free, they have to pay for it somehow, but if they really did bill it as a “family” not a “household” plan I can see why that would rub someone the wrong way.
If they define people as a household in their ToS, it’s a moot point. Like Spotify’s family plan is defined as people who live in the same household. If that’s what Netflix has it defined as, or changed it to that and have given people a pretty long runway to get adjusted to that plan, nobody’s really getting screwed over.
Exactly.
It says “You can create profiles for members in your household, allowing them to have their own personalized Netflix experience. Your account can have up to five individual profiles, and you can set a maturity rating level on each one.” Not that you can welp 5 rando adults out into the world and they can stay on the account in perpetuity. Christ, the basic plan is $6.99 per month. Skip a coffee.
yeah, I have only two people in my actual house on my account, and one autistic son living in a group home nearby with all of $60 to spend monthly on entertainment, toiletries, haircuts, clothes etc. Yes, I will do what it takes to keep him on my account, although the last thing he wanted to watch was Wednesday.
Where the fuck are the Turing police when you need them?
I kinda hit them with a microlight drone, sorry.
At the end of the day there’s no such thing as a free lunch.Except there is? Its not at all hard to view or even download netflix’s content without paying for it.
it’s also pretty easy to steal from a grocery store, that doesn’t mean groceries are free.
Of course not, no one is arguing “Netflix is free.” But you could make yourself a free lunch with stolen groceries. I’d argue theres a difference between stealing a commodity and viewing content created by a service you’re not paying for.Don’t get me wrong though, I cheat at the self checkout too.
I think people have the right to be upset. Password sharing was originally a part of Netflix’s identity. Their social media accounts encouraged it. As a company, Netflix absolutely has the right to walk that back; that’s why to my knowledge there’s no class action lawsuits or any other legal nonsense against them – because what they’re doing is perfectly legally acceptable. But no one has to like it. It’s basic human behavior. It’s why people got upset when the Red Cross started charging for donuts they previously gave away for free. It feels like a betrayal.This article demonstrates Netflix will be just fine though.
I’ll be canceling soon. I was using Netflix at the house when it asked me to verify my device. I declined and the screen message said if I don’t verify they will do it for me. Well, I went back to my place in the city this week and Netflix wouldn’t work there. I haven’t been using it much lately anyway. Tired of the price hikes and declining quantity and quality of shows.
I’m sorry that you, as the owner of two homes, find Netflix’s desire to get revenue from you so frustrating.
Still one household. I’m not sharing the password with anyone.
My understanding is you can shift the address you’re using for Netflix. You can have problems if you’re frequently going back and forth between the two homes, as opposed to (say) having a summer house and then a house you use the rest of the year. Netflix doesn’t want you to switch addresses at the drop of a hat, because otherwise you could just “change your address” whenever your old college roommate wanted to watch Netflix.Honestly, I’m not especially sympathetic. Netflix is not so expensive that someone with two homes should find it a burden to pay twice. You undoubtedly pay twice for lots of things as a result of having two homes, from household items (two sets of utensils) to recurring home costs (two internet bills). And if you only want to pay for one Netflix membership, and have it only in one home, that choice is freely available to you.
Netflix is not so expensive that someone with two homes should find it a burden to pay twice.This is insane. I have no particular sympathy for password sharers but turning on each other over it? Nah.
It’s also not really worth paying for twice. I cut my subscription a few months ago and have no regrets. There’s nothing left on it I care about.
Deciding not to pay for Netflix because you don’t think it’s worth it makes total sense. What I don’t understand is the indignation at the idea that Netflix might want people different in households, who do get value out of having Netflix, to pay for it. I haven’t seen anyone offer a convincing basis for feeling frustrated about this — it’s just anger that someone wants them to pay for a service they’ve dodged paying for for a long time.
Well, I don’t want to pay twice for something twice so Netflix can get a stock pop that so everyone in the C-suite can buy a fifth home that’s twice as big as my two homes put together.I pay for two internet connections because there is essentially no other option. I can’t take the cable with me. But I don’t pay for a landline in either because it’s the 21st century and I can use my mobile phone in both locations and “roaming” is a thing of the past. Fixing the service to a location is a step backward.
The difference is that no one else can use your cell phone. When you take your cell phone from one home, it’s no longer in your other home. It’s not like you can give your cell phone to your college roommate, and your brother, and your mom, and have all them use it simultaneously, for years. So your cell phone company doesn’t have to invent a way to prevent that outcome.Netflix does have to do that, for the perfectly justified reason that they think people using Netflix should pay for it. The situation’s not perfect for you, since you are a single household using Netflix who nevertheless might have to pay twice. If Netflix can find a way to address that, while also preventing password sharing between households, I think they should do it. That said, it’s still kind of hard to get too upset that a person with two houses has to shell out an extra $10 a month. I mean, you presumably heat both homes in the winter, even though you can only benefit from that heat in one home at a time.
That’s not a good analogy. I heat the home so the pipes don’t freeze. I derive a benefit whether I am there in person or not. Plus, I can lower the thermostat and save money. And part of the bill goes to maintaining the infrastructure off of my property e.g. wires, transformers, gas lines, pipes. Again, I derive a benefit in that those things are maintained and will function 24/7 on my behalf. Infrastructure is local and utilities are largely regional monopolies so there is no expectation that I could pay one fee to cover multiple locations. Netflix on the other hand started under the premise of stream anywhere and they even encouraged sharing. They have two main jobs: produce (or buy) content and deliver it. Since they don’t own the internet backbone or last mile of cable, “delivery” pretty much means maintain server farms (or rent cloud space). Since I am not watching twice as much content it’s ridiculous to think I need to pay twice as much for infrastructure – or content.Also tired of the “you can afford it” argument. I’d rather give the $16 a month to a homeless person than a bunch of executives who have one product and have run out of growth opportunities to impress Wall Street. They’ve added advertising, they charge more for 4k. What’s next? Pay their writers even less?
I’m sorry you’re tired of me noting that a person who owns two homes can afford to pay $16 a month to have Netflix in both homes, or can pay $8 to have it in one home, or $0 and not have Netflix at all. In none of those circumstances are they experiencing anything that can be characterized as a problem.And, for what it’s worth, I’m not saying this because I’m anti homeownership, or hostile to people who own homes. I’m a homeowner. But I don’t complain to the public about minor costs I experience as a result of being really really fortunate.
And there is a procedure to allow both houses to use Netflix, but apparently it’s easier to bitch about something instead of doing a bit of research about it. :PCheers
Netflix isn’t trying to get a single account user to purchase multiple accounts, and using a single account in multiple locations is allowed. They do ask you to verify that you are the owner of the account by requiring you to log into a mobile device at a location once a month, something that sweater-vest didn’t do.
WTF? Why shouldn’t they require viewers to pay for the service they offer?
If someone in the home is paying for a subscription I don’t see why members of that household should not be able to share. My guy and I can only watch now when the other isn’t. F that. But handing out your password to friends, relatives who don’t live with you? I’m surprised Netflix encouraged it in the first place.
Eventually they’ll all monopolize so we’re screwed any way you look at it. I can’t afford more than two a month (if that). I’ve only seen three good tv series in that past six years anyway. There are too many other things to do than watch tv. But that reminds me; I need to cancel Netflix and try the Criterion Channel.
I tried their free trial a few years ago but got an error message that it wasn’t supported, blah blah. I use a desktop computer with plenty of zip, Windows 10 and a monitor – pretty simple. No smart tv or roku. Anyone else have any issues? I’m not paying for a service that won’t work.
I mean it’s been in their ToS to not share passwords forever right? And they gave people a lot of runway to figure out what to do before they started enforcing the ToS you agreed to in order to use the service. If it’s proving to be problematic for college kids or people who are on the road a lot, those are the fixes that need to be implemented, outside of that, maybe stop mooching and cough up the 2-3 coffees a month to pay for the content you use pretty regularly?
The thing I’m most surprised about isn’t the people subscribing/paying, but the number of people online stepping up and defending Netflix like “well they have to make money” as if they were some small company strapped for cash.So many people just eager to tell you how the boot tastes good, actually.
“The cold, unfeeling boot of capitalism.” Seriously? I’m generally anti-capitalism, but this is an entertainment outlet, not healthcare.
What a bizarre article. I’m trying to figure out if there’s something I missed, but it really does just seem to be a screed about finally have to pay for your Netflix.
Is it bullying when it takes the form of an easily-circumnavigable suggestion to change tiers? I clicked right past it.
People should pirate TV shows and movies, actually!-The AVClub.com
I KNOW! It sucks. You know what else?
Yesterday, I bought groceries and the clerk BULLIED me in to paying for them. And the day before that, my wife bought tickets to a community theater production our kids want to attend and the website BULLIED her into paying for them.
In a day or two, my car insurance company will just automatically take money from my account. THE FUCKING BULLIES!
I find it super whiny that the AV Club (and others) are making this out to be such a shitty practise. Netflix ushered in a new era of streaming and so it didn’t have anything to compare itself to in its infancy. The problem arose of people sharing passwords and now they’re retroactively addressing it – THOSE MONSTERS!I’m sorry but “My parents live a back home but I still use their Netflix at college” is not a god given right. Ummm consider that a college student might have their cable paid by their parents or whatever….. that’s still not the same cable service their parents are using back home that’s an additional cost. This bullshit with parents sharing their netflix across country for their college kids is super super super entitled and its insanely whiny to hear people bitch about it. Just fucking pay for your stuff guys. Oh no boo-hoo.
Meh. There were 5-ish people using my 5-person Netflix account. Probably never more than 5 people at one time, anyway. They all either lived in my house at some point, or my spouse lived in their house. IDK if or how they are watching Netflix now, but I suspect they’re not watching. And I cut my subscription back to the 2-person level. So the change for me cost Netflix a couple of bucks a month and the freeloaders are no longer talking with their friends about the great show they watched last night on Netflix, so there’s no buzz being generated around that water cooler. It’s Netflix’s right to do this, so I don’t care. And all the freeloaders still have access to my Prime TV, Hulu, Max, and whatever other dumbass shit I waste my money on.