Netflix sees jump in subs as it begins to curb password sharing in US, says report
Netflix sees jump in subs as it begins to curb password sharing in US, says report
The general consumer is an idiot. It’s basic psychology. Rewarding behavior increases it’s likelihood. Soon other streaming services will follow.
BuT tHe FrEe MaRkEt WiLl HoLd BuSiNeSsEs AcCoUnTaBlE!
Oh the late stage capital slogan is now "what the market will bear"
Which is too bad. I never went back and never plan to.
I have a tendency to think this way when I see this kind of disappointing news, but I think it's a good idea to resist the temptation. Assuming everyone that chooses this particular streaming service is an idiot because of something that for me is an issue but for them either doesn't matter or more likely still, isn't even on their radar, well I guess it just helps reinforce a distorted world view that assumes everyone is or should be like me and the people I talk to online.
Still though, I was definitely hoping this would bite them in the arse and it's a shame to see them come out of this smelling like roses somehow.
Yeah, soon is probably putting it mildly, especially with the news that it only helped Netflix.
I only consume content the way God intended : Torrent
Praise be
Absolutely the best way of consuming content, if you have access to the better trackers.
The sad reality most of us who comment on social media and forums forget is we are just a vocal minority, majority of consumers don't care for these outrages unfortunately. If the end product works good enough for most people then they will keep it/use it.
majority of consumers don’t care for these outrages unfortunately
See also: Preordering video games
Preordering online video games is such a rip off.
I go nuts on anyone preordering digital releases just to be outraged when it turns out the game sucks balls.
I usually pre-order PC games that come with a pre-order bonus on Steam because I can just refund it in two hours or playtime/2 weeks in library if it sucks. If it doesn't, well, I was going to buy it anyway. I know game prices are ridiculous now and I'm buying far less than I used to but being able to just refund it is a game-changer.
Yep, already seeing in the family, people having to pay for their own sub now that netflix is cracking on password sharing
They knew they'd face backlash with this decision, but the average person just want to turn on the TV and watch something, so they'd keep paying for that instead of suddenly learning how to pirate things, or move on to other streaming services
It's a short term measure. Long term is: will it have enough exclusive content that makes it worth it?
It seems that business has gone the way where, as long as you keep making profit, who cares if you have less customers? It's such a backwards way of thinking when you actually apply it to reality. I wish I could find the article, but I remember there being a discussion about the trust threshold for businesses. Where, a business who constantly pulls moves like this makes more and more money out of fewer customers, until they suddenly pass a threshold of trust, and BAM! It all falls down.
Ofc, I know, it's capitalism. The endless pursuit of profit and the expense of all else. It's just... Exhausting to see it happen everywhere.
The anti-piracy scare tactics paid off huge dividends for the powers that be.
The other possibility is, because this report is an ad for the business analytics company Netflix buys analytics data from, the numbers may have some massaging
Bear in mind that Antenna (the source of this info) has no access to internal Netflix metrics, only to opt-in consumer information. We won't really know what's going on with Netflix's numbers until their next quarterly report.
This is a super important piece of the puzzle that no one seems to be talking about. It's surface level at best
I wouldn't be surprised if the kind of person who voluntarily participates in opt-in surveys like this has a different likelihood to get their own account in a situation like the Netflix password sharing crack-down.
I'm about to the point where I'm just going to go back to pirating. The value of streaming services was in their convenience. I was willing to pay money for that, but the more fragmented and complicated all of it gets, when I can just pay for 1 VPN and go to a site and click a few links...
Piracy can be pretty convenient too. There are some services that are a kind of a hassle to set up, but work really well once everything is configured. You can have one docker container running qbittorrent and set up so it's only able to access the Internet through VPN, other containers running sonarr/radarr etc to automate the downloading, and one runing plex to organize and stream all the content.
I subscribe to several streaming services because the people who work on and create this content deserve to be paid, but often will watch something on my plex server rather than through the streaming site because it's just more convenient. Also it's nice to have local copies of that media in case it ever gets removed from the streamer in the future.
That's what I've got too. Family and friends are slowly catching on the more I talk about it haha. Got a few friends and my whole family on my Plex server now. It's a fun side project/hobby too imo
The recent loss of Rarbg has been pretty bad for Piracy community. Big shuffles on the internet lately.
I'm honestly sort of suspicious of this report. I wouldn't be surprised if the information is misrepresented or outright fabricated.
I am not really that surprised. I think a lot of people use netflix and just didn't get a sub, because why pay for something that is free. I think a lot of people used the same account then grew up, moved out, moved on and just kept using the same account. Now that they cannot, they are happy to pay for it. My wife and I have not been kicked off my parents account yet. I do not know how long it takes to kick in. But, once we do, we may subscribe again, but it is not a rush as we are watching a lot of disney plus at the moment.
Of course, I did figure that at least some folks would get their own, but the growth is much higher than I was expecting. It's also a death knell of sorts that will start a feeding frenzy for other streaming services I think though. In a few years, it may not be an option for ANY service to share passwords.
Yeah, someone on Tumblr has pointed out that the data does not actually support the headline here. The spike actually started just before the crackdown and immediately dropped.
Almost as if they just started recording in earnest I wonder.
It coulr be misleading, but outright lying here wouldn't be particularly useful since they have a duty to report truthfully on their finicial results.
E: nvm I just realized the source isn't Netflix themselves.
Yeah, not surprising tbh. They tested the change in smaller countries like NZ first, which allowed them to determine if it was worth doing the same elsewhere.
Password sharing is really common, but I don't think enough people realise - if they give a shit about what they use and where it comes from, they're the minority. That goes for almost any service, not just streaming. The people willing to change their habits to protest are always going to be less than the entrenched people who can be pushed, inch by inch.
Most Netflix users just want something to watch with minimal effort and without having to try or think about it. So if the password doesn't work, they shrug, they accept it, they make their own account, and their routines stay the same. In fact I'm willing to be that of the new Netflix users, a majority of them are probably also subscribed to at least one other streaming service, too.
Convenience is a commodity, and users have different price points.
A spike in subscribers for a period doesn't necessarily mean they're making more money than before, even if the number of new signups offsets the cancellations.
I used to pay for the Premium plan, sharing with my parents, but downgraded to the Basic plan. My parents ended up getting their own Basic plan. So a single account essentially split into two, but the sum of both payments is now less than what it used to be for the single account. So Netflix gained an extra subscriber, but is now making less money from that pool of users.
It's totally possible that some number of these new signups consist of people who did the same thing. It could even be that some number of these new signups are people who joined because others who were sharing with them closed their own accounts.
Basically, seeing a spike in new signups isn't itself a measure of success.
As Netflix tested these changes in other parts of the world first, they had sufficient metrics to know how this change will affect their user-base. They are expecting an increase in subs and in income.
I cancelled my sub (4 screens), which was shared among 5 people. Two of these decided to resubscribe by themselves, although not in the 4 screens configuration. From my calculations this means:
I think this matches their "100% increase in subs" metric. The only question is how many others who resubscribe will go for the 2 screens (Standard) sub, or the 1 screen (Basic) sub. With basic, the same situation would result in a ~2EUR decrease in revenue.
I'm skeptical. If this is indeed true, I believe it will be short lived. The simple reason is that the content is not worth the cost. It worked better when people shared their passwords maybe? I gave up my subscription long before they announced these changes because the content, IMO, mostly sucks.
There's a reason to be skeptical. The data is for 2 days
Plex + Sonarr/Radarr and you won't need Netflix anymore ;)
Jellyfin if you don't want to pay at all
That's what I moved over to a few months ago, I will say...it was a challenge to set up but it's been fantastic so far. Have you by any chance automated downloads via trakt TV lists?
Yeah! I also use Overseer to manage library requests and automate those downloads.
The other streaming services will undoubtly follow this trend now that Netflix has shown it works.
While I don't watch enough Netflix that this decision will affect me directly, this is awful news, because now I expect more streaming services to see this as a viable option and it will likely be repeated.
It's a little buried in the account settings, but Netflix does allow account sharing for an additional fee (~$7?). I know families that went with this option so they could continue sharing their account with elderly parents, and college aged children.
I imagine that if a group of friends agreed to split the cost of an account + fees, they would end up paying less than having individual accounts.
No idea how accurate this report is. Either way people online tend to be a vocal minority. The vast majority of people using Netflix either aren't on Reddit or other discussion forums, or are simply lurkers who never comment. I find that people that do comment tend to be doom and gloom when it comes to these sort of things. That applies to me too, as I certainly won't buy Netflix due to their content.
But Netflix is large enough that it will probably be fine for quite some time. Even so I do think streaming is declining rapidly due to too many services and studies have shown that people do pirate more when accessing content becomes tedious. It's all a matter of comfort.
My family is paying nearly $30/month for Netflix now, on top of paying for cable TV, Max, and Amazon. I currently pay for Hulu and Disney+ and share it with the family, but I really hope password crackdowns are not the norm.
If they are, I'm gonna have a good talk with them about other options. Just throwing money away because "Well what if I want to watch something on that platform one night and I don't have it" is precisely how these vampires want people to feel - the fear of lack of access.
If you don't vote with your wallet on the Netflix one, crackdowns will become the norm
Agreed. The Netflix one is out of my control as I don't pay for it. So this discussion may be inevitable.
I actually had no issues with Netflix enforcing their ToS but people can of course cancel their subscriptions if they want. I have no issues with paying for a good service.
The problem I had was I was basically paying so my parents could use it - and they are mostly using my other sibling's HBO account. I barely watch TV and would only really put it on to have something to fall asleep to, so at least in my case, they've lost minimal my account's minimal usage + whatever I was paying them.
I understand and that's your experience of course, you can add non household members for a small fee if needed.
Canceled the service myself when they annouced this. Whats the point of a 4 screen subscription in a 2 person household. Would downgrade but video quality and screens are linked. Either way the content on Netflix has been going downhill IMO so it was just another nail in the coffin for me
The problem is, the answer to "how I watch x show otherwise" is pirate, which is an activity many people simply don't know how to or has many loops in order to make it work.
I mean it's literally just a "stream XYZ free" google search away for a lot of things.
Hot take but I think ultimately this will work out for them. Nobody is going to cancel their sub over this, because whoever is paying isn't losing anything.
The people who lose access to the account might not sign up, but it doesn't exactly hurt Netflix if they don't, they weren't paying anyway.
I canceled mine at the beginning of the year. For me it represented a 5x increase in the cost of the platform. But I agree overall, it's probably a slight positive for them in the short term (I'm skeptical its worth losing mindshare in the long run).
Well, these events made me reconsider subscribing in the first place, as the people benefiting from my subscription used it more than myself, so that was a good opportunity to cancel my subscription.
In Brazil too sadly
Makes sense. Everyone was outraged that they were going to be punished for violating the T&Cs, if just because Netflix never really enforced it, but they’re not actually willing to go without.
I only use Netflix currently, as it comes with my phone plan. The convenience factor is nice, but I find the content library a bit lacking. I must explore Plex at some point.
Check out Jellyfin when you're looking at your options for something like Plex. I love it.
Plex live tv is free and has a few good channels too. I watch that 24/7 Modern Marvels channel all the time while I work from home.
Oh shit I didn't know they had modern marvels on there 👀
I think there will be an initial spike of signups, but over the long term the cancellations may outweigh the signups and subscriptions could decrease. Especially if they don't have another hit show like Stranger Things or Squid Game etc.
Good luck getting one soon as long as they refuse to fairly negotiate with the WGA. SAG-AFTRA already has a strike authorisation so we may be seeing that soon too, depending on how their closed-door negotiations go this week.
Setup a self hosted VPN service with tailscale on my parents computer. Created an exit node on their computer so I can login to Netflix from "home" once a month. This is all free btw.
Perfect solution. But I also only really watch I Think You Should Leave and Better Call Saul. Torrenting these shows instead will be easy if my hack doesn't work long term.
If youre savy enough to do that, its probably worth it to look into running a servarr stack.
It is frankly insane how much attention those three paragraphs from a random outlet have garnered. The data they release is sparse, with little context, and largely obscure. It reads like the abstract of a term paper that used questionable statistics to validate a preconceived point. I would not be surprised to find out that they had incentive to publish something that makes Netflix's decision look successful to investors. But even if you trust their numbers, all they are saying is that Netflix had more signups than usual on two days. It doesn't mean anything.
This increase will be more interesting as we see the trend over time. My thought is that while sub numbers will go up, renewal rates, generally, but certainly post-trial will drop precipitously due to casual/temporary interest for the hit show or movie of the week/month/year - using someone else's login to watch a singular "must watch" of the moment will not directly translate to ongoing subscriptions.
Netflix has shifted to quantity over quality (not saying some of their content is not still quite high quality) and with that, viewership and subscription trends will shift as well.
hardly use Netflix, will of a movie we wanna watch is available on it (rare) and it's my parents' anyways so we're gonna get locked out sooner or later. Glad I just decided to build a NAS to make the whole torrenting > media server pipeline easier and with plenty of space
(I never dare voice this opinion, but this is Beehaw so I’ll take a chance. Please be nice!) I understand piracy as a reaction against unfair corporate practice, but in the long run, with enough traction, this kills not only the distributor but the content creators as well.
I worry for the artists and the craft. I don’t want free lunch. Whenever I get free lunch either my attention span is being sold as a product or someone can’t live from their work.
I wish there would be some kind of Bandcamp for series/movies.
As long as there is an audience, people will create art. Most art is created even without an audience at all. Artists are very rarely the ones gaining big profits from their work anyway. The profits are firmly in the hands of companies and shareholders. A platform that is fairer to content creators and their audience would be great, but I also firmly believe that the negative impact of DRM circumvention and media sharing has always been greatly exaggerated by the people creating and selling DRM.
Bandcamp for TV series sounds like a good shout.
AVClub or something that isn't already taken.
Sad. This just rewards the behavior
Sad. I will probably make a Plex server or something for people I share a password with when it comes to the EU.
This is strange. It's a very small data sample for now. I think it won't persist over the long run.
So much for the great exodus that was predicted.
Savvy tech users consistently underestimate how much hostile corporate behavior the general population is willing to put up with.
I thought that Netflix would be caught out by the number of people turning to piracy, but I guess there’s also a lot of older people who have to setup their own account now that they can’t use a relative’s. Or just get the add on for the relative’s existing sub.
I cancelled my Netflix subscription, but it looks like I might need to set one up for my mum and my nan instead :/
When was the last time you actually did watch Netflix, and even then how often have you watched it?
Soo…what about reddit?
We wait and see. My guess is the company looked at the number of 3rd party users verse official client and desktop users and decided: "Yep, we can lose them". It will all depend on how much of a dive the site takes. Similar to all the leave campaigns on FB, Twitter, Digg, etc.. it won't shutdown by this protest.
I look at it that the best users will be the ones to leave.
Reddit has a different problem: most of the moderation and most of the content came from power users who are now jumping ship en masse, and Reddit, Inc doesn't have anywhere near enough personnel to replace them. They're a minority on Reddit as they are on Netflix, but whereas Netflix can live without them, Reddit cannot. With them gone, it'll soon become a wasteland of spam and trolls like Usenet. This kills the platform.
I've looked into it and the data is for 2 days. It might be an outlier...