Netflix Will Block Password Sharing Before July 2023
Netflix Will Block Password Sharing Before July 2023:
Netflix has been working on a way to block people from sharing their Netflix passwords. It was supposed to roll out in the United States already, but now it's coming to the US and other regions sometime soon.
Netflix confirmed in its recent earnings report that it will start rolling out the new account sharing limitations in the second quarter of 2023 — meaning sometime between now and June 30. The company said in the report, "In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results. We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2."
In other countries where Netflix has already rolled out the changes, Netflix accounts have a "primary location" that is determined using your account history, home Wi-Fi network, and other data. Devices that aren't connected to that network and watching Netflix are automatically blocked after 31 days. The only way around the block is to add a paid "extra member" to your account, which costs less than an individual subscription, but isn't available for all types of Netflix plans.
Netflix to Charge for Password Sharing in the U.S. as Soon as This Summer
Netflix to charge for password sharing in the U.S. as soon as this summer:
In a detailed letter to shareholders, Netflix explained the plans for a broad rollout, including the U.S., as one that will grow the paid membership base, therefore increasing profits, rather than reduce these metrics.
Paid sharing was rolled out in the first quarter of 2023 in Canada, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal. "In Canada, which we believe is a reliable predictor for the US, our paid membership base is now larger than prior to the launch of paid sharing and revenue growth has accelerated and is now growing faster than in the U.S.," the letter reads.
This rollout comes after paid sharing tests conducted in Latin America in 2022 were rendered successful. Netflix explains it saw initial cancel reactions in each of the three countries it tested the paid sharing program when the news were announced. But then it saw increased acquisition and revenue as the "borrowers" activated their own paid accounts and existing members began adding extra shared accounts.
"Longer term, paid sharing will ensure a bigger revenue base from which we can grow as we improve our service," Netflix adds.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Thursday April 20, @11:23AM (13 children)
Ever heard of VPN?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by aafcac on Thursday April 20, @12:18PM (5 children)
I'll be cancelling when this comes if a VPN doesn't solve the problem. They're already charging for multiple screens, this is just a cash grab to make up for the money they burn on terrible programming.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Opportunist on Thursday April 20, @06:11PM (4 children)
Set up a VPN in your DMZ, have the people who share your connection connect there so they have the same IP address as you do, Netflix can go fuck themselves.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by aafcac on Thursday April 20, @09:29PM (3 children)
Honestly, I can do that, but it seems like a lot of work when I can just buy DVDs and avoid giving them any money. If I'm going the VPN route, I might as well just stream my own stuff.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday April 23, @04:51PM (2 children)
Well, that would require you to buy every DVD that anyone who you share your Netflix subscription with wants to watch... that sounds kinda pricy in comparison.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday April 24, @01:55PM
Not really, DVDs are not that expensive and for the cost of a year's subscription you can buy more DVDs than you're likely to have time for. $200 buys a lot of DVDs.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Monday April 24, @01:57PM
Also, if they're not paying, I'm not automatically buying DVDs they want.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Zinho on Thursday April 20, @01:13PM (5 children)
Exactly. My Freedombox [freedombox.org] is set up to allow me to VPN into my home network. As a result, the next time I need to travel internationally for more than a month I can authenticate to Netflix from my home router's IP address.
My guess is that Netflix is literally banking on most people not having the skill/patience to set up their own VPN service to get past this block. Sadly, they're probably right.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 1) by VDIdumbterminal on Thursday April 20, @03:31PM (4 children)
From north of the wall where this has been rolled out for a while:
Even most of those who are capable of creating VPNs for friends and family took a harder look at value for their dollar, and found netflix lacking, at least among my friend and peer group. I don't think they're going to come out ahead on this long term.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SomeRandomGeek on Thursday April 20, @04:06PM (2 children)
I would expect that there are many more people that would be willing to pay for Netflix but would rather use someone else's password if that's available than there are people who will only pay for Netflix if they can share it with some who doesn't live with them.
And apparently Netflix has already confirmed this empirically.
I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Showtime, and Hulu. Netflix has the best programming by far.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 20, @09:56PM (1 child)
I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ just from those alone we're paying something like $60-70+ a month, if I remember correctly. It's certainly enough that my wife keeps telling me that we need to drop something. We're probably going to be dumping Disney+, because Disney isn't what they once used to be. Pretty much the only thing we use them for are a few shows for kiddo. We got the biggest one on DVD (Bluey) recently, so I may just go ahead and cave on that and dump them. We had got them at her insistence, but she doesn't use it as much as she figured. Also, she's fairly disenfranchised with Disney as a whole.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 20, @09:57PM
Errmm..., make that disenchanted. Though, at this point, she'd probably give up her Disney Kingdom citizenship, if she had it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20, @06:27PM
TFA says they claim that they do, but you'll have to decide how much weight you want to put into comments made on earnings calls.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Friday April 21, @11:11AM
VPN, that's Vice President Nixon, right?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SecurityGuy on Thursday April 20, @03:48PM (6 children)
I don't get the "I'm going to cancel" crowd. It's a business. Their job is to make money. If you don't like their service, go ahead and cancel. Everyone was up in arms when Netflix announced price increases, too. Personally, when I consider what I got out of netflix vs the cost of renting movies or going to an actual theater, Netflix was and is a pretty good deal.
Now Netflix is trying not to provide service to people who don't pay for it anyway. I don't see a lot of people who actually pay for Netflix so they can use it cancelling because of that. Maybe a small number of people who actually watch from multiple locations, but I bet there are a larger number of people who are willing to pay for it but don't because they can just borrow someone else's account.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by helel on Thursday April 20, @04:23PM
I think allot of the upset comes from the fact that they used to advertise [quoracdn.net] on the feature of password sharing and now they're disabling it. It seems to me reasonable to be upset if a company takes away features you used to have, even if you're still going to use the product.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Opportunist on Thursday April 20, @06:13PM (3 children)
Sure, their job is to make money. The question is whether this will make them more money.
If I consider their service worth $price/2 and I find someone else who considers their service worth $price/2, we'll share that $price and Netflix sells an account.
Unless either of us considers it worth $price, they sell zero accounts.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by vux984 on Thursday April 20, @09:43PM (2 children)
That's absolutely true. But it's not as simple as you make out.
It doesn't account for the people who DO consider the service worth $price who share accounts anyways, because even if they think its worth price$, if they can easily pay $price/2 or $price/3 they'd be foolish to pay more.
Then Netflix sells one account where they'd otherwise sell 2 or 3.
So the calculus is how many people consider it $price/2 or $price/3 and will cancel if they have to pay $price vs how many people consider it worth $price and were only paying $price/2 or $price/3 because they could.
Further, this is likely to increase average revenue per active account. A trivial example would be a restaurant that loses half its customers by doubling its prices -- its now well ahead of the game, because even though the needle on revenue didn't budge, it now needs half the staff, and half the food to make the same amount of money, and that's more profitable. The point is higher average revenue per customer with fewer customers can result in a healthier balance sheet.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday April 20, @10:05PM
Netflix was the Blockbuster killer and I was part of that. We only recently dumped our DVD subscription service, which we'd had since the early 2000s. We also dumped my account and went with just my Wife's account. I can't justify $20 / person for Netflix, it's just dumb. I assume that the current password crackdown is for different households? What really sucks is for kids in dorms, not being able to just use their home Netflix account (yes, their parent's account or maybe even in some instances their own?).
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday April 23, @04:49PM
I guess we'll have to wait and see whether more people consider $price to be good enough to stay with the company.
Personally, what I'd do, is to install a VPN on the server hoster I already use and pipe every stream through that. This should also take care of any relevant problems if I should ever have to use their service while traveling.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday April 20, @11:21PM
They've already been charging for multiple screens for years, and some plans include it. It's not like they were allowing unlimited simultaneous streams. They're just trying to force people to pay for what they're already paying.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Thexalon on Thursday April 20, @04:12PM
I mean, it's not like copyright pirates haven't spent a couple of decades coming up with progressively better tools to download or stream anything that anybody has ever distributed on video. Which especially work well if combined with an ad-blocking browser to conveniently view what you want when you want without a lot of stupidity around it and no extra fees.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.