Netflix found another great reason to cancel

Good luck with your “comeback,” Netflix.

After a rough year, Netflix is ​​finally winning back lost customers and satisfying its shareholders. Yeah, we’ll see how long that lasts! Netflix now confirms that it will crack down on password sharing early next year, an extremely unpopular decision that could drive customers away.

The news came during Netflix’s quarterly earnings call on Oct. 18, where the streaming giant toyed with the idea of ​​cloud gaming and boasted a surge in subscribers (after a big loss earlier this year). ).

Netflix began testing a system against password sharing in March 2022. The experiment, which is currently limited to Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, is based on a warning system. Customers caught sharing their password are asked to remove guests from their account or pay a small monthly fee (around $2). Obviously, the people affected by this experiment are confused and upset.

“Ultimately, we came up with a thoughtful approach to monetizing account sharing and will begin rolling it out more broadly beginning in early 2023. After listening to consumer feedback, we will offer borrowers the ability to transfer their Netflix on their own account, and for users to more easily manage their devices and create sub-accounts (“additional member”), if they want to pay for family or friends.”

We’re not sure how Netflix will implement its policy against password sharing. The company could push this nonsense globally, or just add a few countries to the experiment.

Interestingly, Netflix suggests its upcoming ad-supported plan will keep customers happy amid crackdown on password sharing. We expect the opposite to happen: forcing customers to opt for an ad-supported plan will only add insult to injury. It doesn’t help that the ad-supported plan has some ridiculous limitations.

Earlier this year, we wondered if Netflix is ​​still worth using. The platform’s excessive price hikes and careless attitude towards original content continually annoy viewers. Ending account sharing (and pushing customers toward an ad-supported plan) won’t make customers happy.

We expect rival streaming services to follow in Netflix’s footsteps. Ad-supported streaming will soon become the norm, and password sharing is about to go. The fact that Adobe and other companies see “password hacking” as a business opportunity is an unfortunate sign of things to come.

Source: Netflix via Engadget