Will Netflix’s Costly Membership Affect Its Viewership?

Netflix, a major streaming platform has a tonne to offer from movies to shows such as Squid Game, Suits, Rebel Moon, Friends, Breaking Bad, 13 Reasons Why, and Money Heist, etc. No doubt it is a major streamer with more than 247 million subscribers worldwide and the numbers keep increasing. After several price hikes and measures to crack down on password sharing and VPN, the big question is whether Netflix’s strategy affects its viewership. Let’s take a deep look at it. 

Will Netflix’s Costly Membership Affect Its Viewership?

As of October 2023, Netflix added 9 million subscribers in Q3 2023 and saw a significant YoY growth in revenue at $8.5 billion in the same question. In total, Netflix currently has 247 million subscribers worldwide. In April 2023, Netflix said that 100 million users were using password sharing to access its content and that’s a huge number to comprehend. Netflix added that ad-tier memberships saw a boost of 70% during the quarter and the numbers will increase given the rollout across 12 other countries. 

Also Read: Netflix Password Sharing Crackdown Measure May Let You Lose These Benefits!

Netflix Memberships Are Getting Costly

Netflix spends more than a billion dollars each year on producing content alone along with copyrights and royalties among other incurring costs. To recover the cost, it levies a subscription to its users and it doesn’t require a rocket science degree to understand that Netflix memberships have been getting costly.

You need to consider several reasons why Netflix is hiking the prices of Netflix memberships. Netflix purchases licences to showcase movies and TV shows that could vary from country to country. It also generates tonnes of original content paying a premium on the same. All these costs add up and the end customers end up paying for them in the form of subscription plans.

The US pricing is almost comparable to the Indian and yet, the latter is paying more intrinsically given the catalogue of titles and content available in India versus the US. 

Also Read: Best Netflix Mobile Games To Play After Your Netflix Binge!

More than One Subscription – A Certain Hard Pass

There was a time when Netflix India didn’t understand the Indian psyche. Most of the shows were in foreign languages, mainly in English. However, things have changed almost 360° as Netflix has invested deeply in acquiring more Hindi and regional language content that would appeal to the diverse population of India.

However, competition has become fierce as well. Both Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar have great catalogs of content and several other OTT players have become stronger over the years such as Sony LIV, Zee5, etc.

Each OTT platform is trying to win over subscribers by pushing original and exclusive content such as Asur, The Family Man, Panchayat, and The Freelancer. This is one of the factors that can greatly influence Netflix’s viewership since people in India aren’t likely to subscribe to multiple OTT platforms simultaneously to consume the content if they are still onboard with cable or set-top boxes. It means Netflix, which is considered a luxury and a premium streaming service in India, could be taking a hit as it has no other value proposition than a limited catalogue of content. 

On the contrary, an Amazon Prime subscription gives you access to Prime delivery, Prime Video, Prime Music, and so on. Additionally, Disney+ Hotstar offers access to international cricket matches but anyone who has ever lived in India even for a day would know the relationship between Indian and cricket.

Netflix Subscription Plans & Discounts

At the time of writing this, Netflix India’s cheapest plan stands at Rs 149/mo for mobile and Rs 199/mo for all devices which translates to Rs 1,788/year and Rs 2,388/year. Amazon Prime Video stands at 1,499/year while Disney+ Hotstar has a Super plan at Rs 899/year and a Premium at Rs 1,499/year.

Compare these three streaming services and you can easily guess which one is the most expensive. Even the mobile-only plan at Netflix is more expensive than both Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar every year which means the latter two will acquire more subscribers than Netflix. The ongoing promotional activities, discounts, deals, and add-ons are other factors that work in favor of Netflix’s rivals which is why it is losing subscribers in India. 

Netflix Password Crackdown Measures

According to Netflix, approximately 100 million subscribers have been password-sharing with family and friends. It could be either a measure to cut down on the cost of subscription as it can be easily spread across several users even if Netflix has limited screens at a time. But that’s something Netflix doesn’t want, right?

Netflix has been cracking down on users sharing their passwords which means, you can no longer share passwords and steer away from consequences. For instance, Netflix subscribers in the US (and a few other markets) can no longer share their passwords with people living outside their households. 

Netflix started something called ‘an extra member’ or simply put, paid password sharing that allows people to add up to two people at $7.99/mo/person without any restriction that the users must be in the same household. Yes, the users must still be in the same country but the feature works even if users are far apart. This feature is being tested in many countries and will drop in your location soon. 

If you feel like your participation in someone’s subscription is not worth it or the recommendations are getting mixed up since different people are accessing the same account, you can transfer a profile to get a standalone membership keeping all your watch history and recommendations intact.

Cracking down on password sharing and imposing paid plans and subscriptions ought to cause Netflix to lose subscribers. Of course, several factors are involved that determine whether subscribers will stay or go away but given the massive crackdown on password sharing and VPN usage, the streamer could be seeing fallout as you are reading this. 

Also Read: Explained: How Does Netflix Work? Behind The Scene Of Our Black Screen

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