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Netflix reveals first details of password sharing crackdown


Brian

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FINANCE.YAHOO.COM

Netflix has revealed the first details of its password sharing crackdown.
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As a result, Netflix will require users to identify a "primary location" for all accounts that live within the same household. Users will need sign into the home wifi of the primary location at least once every 31 days to ensure their device is not blocked.

Enforcement expected in March timeframe.

 

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My first thought when reading this was a snarky, Onion-like headline. Something like....

 

"Netflix seeks to curtail account sharing by making content library extremely unappealing."

 

I get the feeling I am not the only one that basically pays attention to Netflix for Stranger Things and Cobrai Kai at this point. And not a great time for them that they are both on their final seasons.....

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Users will need sign into the home wifi of the primary location at least once every 31 days to ensure their device is not blocked.


Per CNBC, that requirement has been removed from the current version of the FAQ.

 

Quote

A previous version of the FAQ that has since been removed read that “to ensure uninterrupted access to Netflix, connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days. This creates a trusted device so you can watch Netflix, even when you’re away from your primary location.”

 

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3 hours ago, Jason said:

If they want to do this then step one would be to stop explicitly presenting the pricing tiers in terms of how many simultaneous screens you're paying for.

 

What about spatial audio and TWO more devices authorized for downloading?!?!

 

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WWW.CNET.COM

The tweaks come ahead of a planned password-sharing crackdown, which heightens the need for more devices to be permitted to download.
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"To bypass this, the main account holder will need to verify the device through a temporary code. Once verified, the traveling member can watch Netflix for seven consecutive days. It’s unclear if you can request multiple temporary codes following the seven-day period to avoid paying for an additional account."

 

This is the part I will find the most interesting.  There are many situations where an account holder can be logged into 2 different locations at once (aside from password sharing), for multiple days/weeks/months at a time. For family members sharing, having to input a security code is an inconvenience but it's not going to stop a well connected family from sharing. A quick txt to one another and problem solved. I would love for them to start banning ip's and their plan backfires though and people actually unsubscribe.  They go from promoting password sharing to this...

They probably have enough data to know this is going to work out in their favor sadly.

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1 hour ago, DarkStar189 said:

"To bypass this, the main account holder will need to verify the device through a temporary code. Once verified, the traveling member can watch Netflix for seven consecutive days. It’s unclear if you can request multiple temporary codes following the seven-day period to avoid paying for an additional account."

 

This is the part I will find the most interesting.  There are many situations where an account holder can be logged into 2 different locations at once (aside from password sharing), for multiple days/weeks/months at a time. For family members sharing, having to input a security code is an inconvenience but it's not going to stop a well connected family from sharing. A quick txt to one another and problem solved. I would love for them to start banning ip's and their plan backfires though and people actually unsubscribe.  They go from promoting password sharing to this...

They probably have enough data to know this is going to work out in their favor sadly.

 

This is going to be a massive PITA for, say, families with multiple kids in college.

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I find it interesting that streaming services want to shoot themselves in the foot on this one.

 

As a general rule, people WILL pay for content if it's easy and cheap enough to do so. Spotify damn near eliminated music pirating. Netflix and Hulu, while I wouldn't go that far, significantly reduced movie pirating (I can certainly tell you that resources for pirating movies are nowhere near what they were 10 years ago)

 

I understand that finding new avenues of growth for a company that is already so saturated into the market as Netflix is almost impossible, but I think that maaaaybe transitioning to a more sustainable business model is probably a better idea than making your product more inconvenient. The more inconvenient you make your product, the more people simply won't use it. If pirating is only marginally more inconvenient, people will just do that.

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I'm not sure what people were expecting. Password sharing was always going to be a temporary thing with video streaming. It was bound to happen with Netflix, and it'll happen with other streaming services as well (at least the ones that survive). Just like with the artificially low prices, it was a tactic that existed to grow market share and establish the value of the service to that user base. They've done that, so now it's time to start extracting some profit. It's not really a question of if this is a good idea, but if it's a good idea to do now, and from what I can tell, it probably is.

 

This isn't to say that I'm happy that it's going away. Basically all of my streaming services are shared one way or another, but people are acting like this will kill Netflix, that it'll bring piracy back, or if it wasn't the inevitable result of success.

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They could do it how Prime does it, no one complains about that. You can only have two adults sharing, 4 teens and 4 kids. They all have to have their own account and you have to be in the same country.

 

Or YoutubeTV is simply you have to be in the same zipcode.

 

Plenty of companies already do this but Netflix is getting shit for it because they're changing it rather than not having it from the start.

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10 hours ago, SoberChef said:

One concern I keep hearing is what about those who either:

A. Travel regularly & for long periods of time.

B. Those that utilize a VPN to access movies available in other regions (will this even still be allowed to be a thing at all?)

 

Wondering about this. My parents snow bird in the 6-months of the year. The answer is probably changing their address every 6 months, but what a hassle.

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I'm more baffled that this didn't happen way sooner and that people are acting like them not getting shit for free anymore is somehow a shocking move by a company that exists to make money. It's not that I don't like my friends and I sharing services but come on, it was fun while it lasted. 

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I don’t think the issue is that they are limiting password sharing, it is more that the scheme they are introducing isn’t great and at a time when the relative value of Netflix seems to be at an all time low.

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7 minutes ago, sblfilms said:

I don’t think the issue is that they are limiting password sharing, it is more that the scheme they are introducing isn’t great and at a time when the relative value of Netflix seems to be at an all time low.

Yeah, and this doesn't come across as 'We've established the market, and now we're doing away with early adopter incentives'.  Rather this seems clearly a 'Shit, we're bleeding users to other services, how can we force more people into paying for their own account?'

 

The execs seemed to have seen all of the customer complaints as to why they're leaving Netflix and decided 'Are we bleeding accounts because our original content is floundering, we've oversaturated our original content, we cancel almost every original series that gains popular traction, and we've lost most of our good 3rd party catalog to other services? No, no...it's the password sharing that's causing people to unsubscribe!'

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7 minutes ago, TheShader said:

Yeah, and this doesn't come across as 'We've established the market, and now we're doing away with early adopter incentives'.  Rather this seems clearly a 'Shit, we're bleeding users to other services, how can we force more people into paying for their own account?'

 

The execs seemed to have seen all of the customer complaints as to why they're leaving Netflix and decided 'Are we bleeding accounts because our original content is floundering, we've oversaturated our original content, we cancel almost every original series that gains popular traction, and we've lost most of our good 3rd party catalog to other services? No, no...it's the password sharing that's causing people to unsubscribe!'

 

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The other thing is they're doing this in the most hostile way possible. It makes sense to not want a bunch of different people sharing an account but as has been said already in this thread they're doing it in a way that's a major fuck-you to people engaging in what most people would consider legitimate family planning, like a family with a kid who's off at college. Keyser has the right basic idea with how Prime is done, I'd say just have an incremental charge per head on accounts that's cheaper than each person having their own account, and limit each of those logins to one screen at a time so that people aren't incentivized to try to figure out how to pass it around between their friends. Because multiple screens at a time on a single account is nominally about multiple people in a household maybe wanting to watch different things at the same time, so it'd be fine to limit each personalized login to a single screen. 

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5 hours ago, TheShader said:
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APPLEINSIDER.COM

New Netflix rules that would have enforced a limitation on users' sharing passwords are reportedly a mistake and don't apply in the US — for now.

Raise your hand if you believe them 


Step 1.) ”Leak” agro password sharing crackdown plans

Step 2.) Say it was an error

Step 3.) Release slightly more reasonable plans

Step 4.) ?????

Step 5.) Continue bleeding users

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