Netflix reveals details on password sharing crackdown, limits sharing to one household

[lightbright]

Yahoo Finance Live's Dave Briggs leads the discussion on how Netflix's password crackdown is expected to affect customers' accounts and subscriber sentiment.

DAVE BRIGGS: From the tweet that didn't age well file, here's a beauty-- love is sharing a password. Netflix sent that out nearly six years ago, and now it seems the company has had a change of heart. The question for Netflix now is, do you love the streaming giant enough to pay for your own account? Netflix has begun enforcing its no password sharing policy by officially updating its help center for countries currently in the crackdown zone. That's Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. But the US may be up next. So pay attention to these changes.
Sharing your Netflix account with someone outside your household will get you on the naughty list. Users will be asked to identify the primary location for the account. And you'll need to sign in to your primary location at least once every 31 days to keep that setting up to date. Now, here's where it gets stickier. If someone logs into your account from a device not affiliated with that primary location, their device may be blocked. If you're traveling and you log on to your Netflix account, you can request a temporary code and watch Netflix for seven consecutive days. If your trip is longer than 31 days, you'll need to update your primary location.

Getting heated yet? I am. Netflix will be using IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity to determine if a device is connected to your primary location. The policy is indeed good news for Netflix and its investors as the company is said to lose around $6 billion a year on customers who share passwords. The added revenue only strengthens its case as the clear streaming leader.

- I think Netflix is the Kleenex of streaming, bottom line, period. Best run, cash flow. Now they're going into advertising. Fantastic. They will be the core.

DAVE BRIGGS: I don't disagree with that. But how this policy is received in the short-term will fall somewhere between Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown and the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle. Yes, the vast majority will shake it off. But brace yourselves for-- pardon the second Swifty reference-- bad blood. Parents with kids in college, pay. Kids at boarding school, pay. Kids studying abroad, pay, pay, pay. Couples who have long distance relationships, you pay one that, at its surface, as simple as a red light, green light game.

CONTINUED:
Netflix reveals details on password sharing crackdown (yahoo.com)

 

[lightbright]

Netflix cracks down on password sharing in March, but there could be a loophole
Subscribers in a pilot program in Latin America found a way around the extra fees.

If you’re sharing your Netflix password, get ready to pay more.
In a letter to its shareholders, the streaming company said it will start blocking subscribers from sharing passwords in March. Plus, Netflix plans to roll out a paid-sharing plan.
Netflix says it knows some people may cancel, but it’s expecting other households to activate accounts and counterbalance that revenue loss.
The streaming service had a similar pilot program in Latin America where users could add a sub-account for an additional $3 a month.
Subscribers in the program found a way around the extra fees.
“They have found the loophole that mobile devices did not count as separate locations,” says Sarah Saril, the tech deals and streaming reporter at Insider. “So people were able to get around it by still sharing an account, but streaming on their phone or on their tablet. You can still use that to Airplay on to a TV. However, if users were trying to watch Netflix directly on their TV or on their desktop, they then would report to Netflix that they were in a different location. We won't know if this will work in the States until it rolls out here, but there might be a loophole for us.”
This all comes as Netflix fights for dominance in a post-pandemic world. After getting a big bump in subscribers at the start of the pandemic, it has struggled to maintain its streaming superiority as competitors crowd in. The company estimates 100 million households use the service without paying for it. Now, Netflix wants those password pirates to pay up.


CONTINUED:
Netflix banning password sharing, but there could be a loophole | khou.com

 

[a1rimrocka]

REPOST... Already a 2 page thread

Netflix Unveils First Details of New Anti-Password Sharing Measures - Update: Netflix claims rules were posted in error

Netflix is the streaming giant led by greed. In their attempts to garner more money theyre going to lose millions. The traveler, the college kids, the ex-pats, the elderly (who aren't tech savvy using their children's accounts), etc. They may need a new CEO or it's all downhill from here.

www.bgol.us

 

[lightbright]

Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is here — and it costs $7.99 per month​

Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown has reached the US.​

Netflix is about to kick your best friend off your account — unless you pay for them to share your account, that is. On Tuesday, Netflix revealed the details of how its crackdown on password sharing will affect viewers in the US and how much it will cost to keep extra people on your account.
If you have the Netflix Standard plan that costs $15.49 per month, then you have the option of adding one extra member who can use the service outside your household for $7.99 extra each month. Anyone who pays for the Netflix Premium package with 4K streaming has the option of adding up to two extra members, but each one will still cost another $7.99. The US isn’t the only country where the new rules are rolling out either, as Netflix in the UK will charge subscribers £4.99 each month for extra member slots.
Netflix subscribers on its two cheapest plans (Basic or Standard with Ads, which cost $9.99 and $6.99 per month, respectively) don’t have the option to add extra members to their account at all.
Netflix subscribers in the US who share the service “outside their household” will get an email about the company’s password-sharing policies beginning on Tuesday, according to the blog post.

Netflix’s paid password-sharing experiments have been happening for a while, and it expanded its tests to Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain in February. The password-sharing crackdown was originally supposed to hit the US at the beginning of this year, but the company pushed that launch back again in April.
A support page explaining the new setup describes “extra members” as someone who will have their own password and profile, paid for by the person who “invited” them to join. Extra member accounts also have their own set of restrictions. They have to be activated in the same country, they can only view or download content on one device at a time, and they can’t create extra profiles or log in as a Kids profile.
Your Netflix household, according to the company, is set based on where you watch Netflix on a TV and what IP address that device uses. That location can be reset using the app on a TV or a device connected to a TV by choosing to confirm or update your household and responding to a verification link sent to the account’s listed email address or phone number.
Netflix:

We use information such as IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity to determine whether a device signed into your account is part of your Netflix Household.
We do not collect GPS data to try to determine the precise physical location of your devices.
If a Netflix Household hasn’t been set, we will automatically set one for you based on IP address, device IDs, and account activity.
You can always update your Netflix Household from a TV by connecting to your internet and following the steps above.

Netflix used to be very pro-password sharing — in March 2017, it famously tweeted, “Love is sharing a password.” (That tweet, as of this writing, is still up.) But in early 2022, it started testing ways to end the practice and get people to pay for accounts using Netflix outside of the account owner’s household.

Maybe the new tweet should be, “Love is asking your friend / partner to pay for sharing your password.” Image: Netflix
In April 2022, the company revealed that it lost subscribers for the first time in over a decade, and it said at the time that more than 100 million households were getting Netflix through password sharing.
As it’s tried to turn that subscriber growth around, cracking down on password sharing is just one of many levers the company has pulled. It also introduced an ads plan, which has nearly 5 million global active users and has invested heavily in games as an extra perk for subscribers.

Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is here — and it costs $7.99 per month

Netflix will start notifying users it’s detected with shared accounts today.

www.theverge.com

 

[Duece]