Netflix is all great with superb web series, TV shows & movies including “The Office”, “Breaking Bad”, “Friends” and you name it. For ages, Netflix has been a competitive video streaming platform with millions of users worldwide and the numbers are still growing. However, the platform is trying to combat a fierce battle and that’s against the problem of password sharing. It has riddled the streamer so much so that it has been testing out Netflix password crackdown measures that will help the platform get free of such tactics.
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Netflix & Password Sharing
Netflix has been a major streaming platform over the years. It even shared a tweet “Love is sharing a password” in order to gain momentum and edge over its rivals, however, it is battling fierce combat in a saturated streaming market populated by Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+, and whatnot. It is estimated that 100 million Netflix subscribers are using password sharing to access Netflix as of April 2022.
It could be anyone from your friends, family, relatives, colleagues, and others sharing their accounts with others. This is actively contributing to lost revenue for Netflix since people aren’t paying for the quality content and regular upkeep of the platform. Netflix has been trying to get rid of password sharing using measures such as adding location-specific restrictions imposed on accounts and paid password sharing. Let’s understand it a bit more in the next section.
Netflix Measures To Crack Down On Password Sharing
Instead of annihilating password sharing on the platform, Netflix has devised various strategies including rollout in a few countries from a test run before rolling it out worldwide. For now, Peru, New Zealand, Chile, Costa Rica, the US, and a few other countries are ground zero for testing out these strategies.
Netflix charges as per plans and screens which means you can choose Rs. 199 for a single screen (Only HD Quality) or get up to four screens at Rs. 649/mo (Ultra HD Quality). This has been contributing to password sharing heavily given how cheap it is to split a four-screen plan with four members. With the current measures in place, users will have to add their locations which means people/family members residing in the same location will be able to access their shared Netflix account.
Apart from that, Netflix will let you add up to two sub-accounts for people you want to share your account with, charging a premium such as CA$7.99/per account but this is not applicable in India right now. Again, this could differ from country to country. Depending upon when you read this, this feature should have commenced in the US and other parts of the world as weeeedwddddll. Netflix is also prompting users to transfer their viewing history and recommendations to a standalone account.
Additionally, it has been long since Netflix has been cracking down on VPN as well which means you can no longer use VPN/servers to get access to Netflix library unless you know a way around such as multi-hop or other VPN features.
How Will Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown Work?
As aforementioned, Netflix has rolled out a few strategies to crack down on password sharing. Once rolled out, users trying to access a Netflix household account will trigger an OTP on the primary user’s registered email address and he/she will have 15 minutes to provide the same.
The streaming platform will obtain device IDs, IP addresses, and account activities as well to ascertain the location of the user and grant access (or deny) since household accounts are meant for users residing in the same location. Netflix has maintained that it won’t collect GPS data of the users although that remains to be seen.
Users will still have the opportunity to add sub-accounts that are independent of location. Users can still open a standalone account transferring viewing history and more from their previous shared accounts. Do note that the primary and sub-account holders will have to reside in the same country.
The plan will include watching content and downloading although it would be available for one device at a time. There won’t be any Kid’s profiles once the profile limit is exhausted. Again, users will have the option to choose between Basic and Standard subscription plans as they please.
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Won’t This Result in Cancelled Subscriptions?
A question arises about how Netflix will be able to cope with cancelled subscriptions. Netflix has already tested the password-sharing measures and it is confident when it comes to losing subscribers. The streaming platform says that there’s ‘a possibility’ that Netflix’s policy will result in loss of subscribers, however, it will be in the short term. A letter to the shareholders dictates how the company is eyeing growth in the long run.
Netflix’s popularity, quality content, and how people perceive it in terms of watchtime & retention will benefit the platform as long as it is propelling quality content. No doubt Netflix has one of the best catalogues both including classics and modern titles making it a hotspot for users that should help the streamer overcome lost subscriptions. Moreover, there are only some markets where the subscribers might cancel their accounts, however, the streamer is confident enough to keep the policy rolling out in more countries.
What Does It Mean To You?
You might wonder what Netflix’s password crackdown policy means to you, right?
We recommend using a paid subscription to get access to Netflix’s library. You can check out Netflix’s ad-supported plan available in a handful of countries. A mobile-only plan (Rs. 199/per month) in India is hugely popular since smartphones are available almost in every household. There are Basic to Premium plans each available with increasing resolution and screens, etc.
You can split a four-screen account with your family members which brings down the prices compared to buying individual subscriptions. You can accommodate two additional members in your plan paying for each one of them which is again a cost-effective measure than asking them to use an individual account. Netflix will continue to crack down on free-loaders, disconnecting them from accessing the platform or limiting the features so these are a few legit resolutions you can pick.
