Netflix Password Crackdown Reportedly Driving New Sign-Ups
Netflix password sharing crackdown is reportedly driving new sign-ups to the site. Antenna research company gave some insights to Variety. According to their numbers, sign-ups for the end of May saw a 102% increase from the previous 60 days. That would mean average daily sign-ups were at about 73,000 users. Antenna also argues that this increase was actually more than the ones they recorded during the on-set of COVID-19 in March of 2020. Not as heralded is the fact that Netflix has an increase in U.S. cancellations as well. CEOs and other decision-makers have been saying that phenomenon is to be expected with such drastic changes.
At the time of writing, Antenna says that the ratio of sign-ups to cancellations results in a 25% increase when compared to the previous 60 days. For those unaware, Netflix now prompts users to buy an extra member of their household for $7.99 a month. That applies if you're currently sharing an account with someone outside your "household." Over time, Netflix also says they'll start blocking devices that attempt to access an account at another address without paying the toll. It's a remarkable roll-back for a company that used to say "love is sharing a password."
Netflix's Password Crackdown Comes With Cancellations Too
It should come as no shock that folks are outraged by these moves. Current events like inflation, wars, and general distrust of institutions have a part to play in the price increases all around the world. Netflix has argued that they ignored it for too long. (This, of course, ignores how the shared password policy helped lead to the rise and popularity of the service since it's launch in 2007!) At the UBS Global Technology, Media & Telecom Conference last year, CEO Ted Sarandos addressed how it would look and he wasn't wrong about this.
"It feels a lot like the way you manage a price increase. … Consumers aren't going to love it right out of the gate, but we need to show them why they should see value," Sarandos said. "We created a product that was not very easy for you to add your kids to and pay for that."
Netflix Was Already Hinting About The Password Crackdown Last Year
People have been speculating about how these different policies would come into effect this year. Decision-makers at Netflix have been nothing short of adamant that they were going to curb password sharing practices. A lot of talk about numbers and such, but really a ton of smoke before the process of moving people off of their accounts and encouraging these new sign-ups.
"We've landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we'll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023," the company told shareholders in a quarterly statement. "After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts ('extra member'), if they want to pay for family or friends. In countries with our lower-priced ad-supported plan, we expect the profile transfer option for borrowers to be especially popular."
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