Netflix Account Sharing Changes

[2Legit2Quit]

I signed up for a year of Disney+ yesterday, and promptly made 3 profiles for my friends to use

There's actually a lot of good content on there and the price is much cheaper than Netflix.

[ZenOps]

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Gross, I have to respond to a zo post.

The difference being, your crap is on an internal network. Netflix's shit costs money for them to stream in the form of bandwidth costs. Also other costs like licensing content and producing new content and paying employees.

Well, what happens when I share my wifi password with the neighbors? Why do wifi hotspots even exist? Isn't the entirety of the internet just shared agreements between networks all around the world? Would Netflix even exist if all networks were closed.

Its not like I use one device, or one TV or one device in one location. First world problem is getting enough hardwired ports to all the devices that need it for my personal use at one location, and then worry about when I'm not at that location. And I don't even have kids.

Netflix out of touch. I'd understand if they lowered the overall premium price $7 and then required $7 for each additional person, but thats not what they did.

[davidI]

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I thought you said "steal"....as in pirate. Although using the term "steal" is silly most of the time when it comes to content discussions - it's too non-specifici.

If you meant that people sharing their logins is also "stealing" (as stretch), then that is also a questionable position. What portion of Netflix bandwidth usage is considered stealing? If it's half (which is probably far too high), then that is only 3% of their content budget.

Definition of Steal
:to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice


Netflix Terms of Service
4.2. The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household unless otherwise allowed by your subscription plan.

I don't see anything "non-specific" about it being stealing. What would you call it? Borrowing?

[QUOTE=Buster;5108639]If it's half (which is probably far too high), then that is only 3% of their content budget. This assumes that their streaming costs are linear with usage, and other assumptions. It also assumes that the margin of the people who are only purchasing netflix to share is so small relative to their bandwidth costs that the net impact on cash flow for a the login-sharing freeriders is a negative drain.

The password sharing does affect approximately half. And you're assuming that their content costs are based on paid subscribers rather than the number of streams/views/watch time. I mean, when complaining about content growing stale and the lack of Hollywood offerings, it would seem easily attributable to the fact that ~50% of views are unpaid.

"Netflix said it estimates more than 30 million U.S. and Canadian households are using a shared password to access its content. The company said more than 100 million additional households were likely using a shared password worldwide.... The streaming platform currently has 222 million subscribers worldwide."

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/19/netf...is-coming.html

[Buster]

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Definition of Steal
:to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice

As I said, steal is too non specific. I mean, if your intent is to just be inflammatory rather than discuss the issues at hand, it's useful. Otherwise it makes more sense to say "pirate" or "password share".

In any case, you're just articulating a class free-rider problem. Which always involves the free-riderees being upset at the free-riderers. It's a pointless complaint, however, because all that matters is whether or not you feel like you are getting value out of your arrangement with Netflix. You're not a partner with Netflix.

[Yolobimmer]

[QUOTE=davidI;5108661]Definition of Steal
:to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice


Netflix Terms of Service
4.2. The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household unless otherwise allowed by your subscription plan.

I don't see anything "non-specific" about it being stealing. What would you call it? Borrowing?

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If it's half (which is probably far too high), then that is only 3% of their content budget. This assumes that their streaming costs are linear with usage, and other assumptions. It also assumes that the margin of the people who are only purchasing netflix to share is so small relative to their bandwidth costs that the net impact on cash flow for a the login-sharing freeriders is a negative drain.

The password sharing does affect approximately half. And you're assuming that their content costs are based on paid subscribers rather than the number of streams/views/watch time. I mean, when complaining about content growing stale and the lack of Hollywood offerings, it would seem easily attributable to the fact that ~50% of views are unpaid.

"Netflix said it estimates more than 30 million U.S. and Canadian households are using a shared password to access its content. The company said more than 100 million additional households were likely using a shared password worldwide.... The streaming platform currently has 222 million subscribers worldwide."

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/19/netf...is-coming.html

WRONG.

Theft is defined as the physical removal of an object that is capable of being stolen without the consent of the owner and with the intention of depriving the owner of it permanently.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/theft

There is no victim in streaming something.

[rage2]

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I have skin in the game!

I sold it!

Pick one.

Why not both? The remaining stake I have that tanked, still hurts. Pretty sure @killramos is sick of hearing me rant about it last year several times haha.

[pheoxs]

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Sure it does. Netflix spends over $1 billion per year on its cloud computing and streaming costs. People who use the service without paying run up the expenses which means to hit the same profit margins a portion of what I spend is going to supplying streams to freeloaders.

Your argument loses all merit because Netflix sells tiers that state how many screens you pay for. No one is using the service without paying because the account is in fact paying for 4 screens.

- Basic - watch on 1 supported device at a time
- Standard - watch on 2 supported devices at a time
- Premium - watch on 4 supported devices at a time

As Rage said, the issue is they are double dipping. They already increased price tiers to add more screens as an option, now they are adding a secondary fee for the same thing.

[rage2]

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Netflix Terms of Service
4.2. The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household unless otherwise allowed by your subscription plan.[/url]

This was added recently (not sure when). Earlier tos didn’t have this.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160124...gal/termsofuse

Even then, the added section talks about allowed by your subscription plan, which was literally the reason why they rolled out the premium 4 simultaneous stream tier, to accommodate account sharing. It was a tier designed to save money with family and friends legitimately like every family plan out there. Now they’re just charging a LOT more to do it.

If they dumped the tiered plans while rolling out single household restriction and subsequent cost, nobody would be bitching.

Not sure how much more I can repeat this. Seems like the end of the road for this thread.

[killramos]

It’s funny that people like to quote the stream count until the cows come home, and completely ignore that letting people outside your home use your account is against the terms of service.

It’s a wholistic agreement, you don’t get to cherry pick the parts you like and don’t like. Regardless of who tweets what.

The people who have been gaming the system for years are why we are where we are at today. End of the day costs have to go up to subsidize the free riders.

You can either be mad at Netflix for wanting to turn a profit like some kind of ritard, or be mad at the free riders who drove these policies needed to generate additional revenue.

Either way, cheap legit streaming is going the way of the dodo. Welcome to cable 2.0.

[ExtraSlow]

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Welcome to cable 2.0.

I agree with this. The business model fo the cable companies "back in the day" looked a lot like a utility, and the streaming companies will become that soon enough as well. Growth without profits is not a long term plan in any industry, and Netflix gets that (now).

Whatev, I always thought I should share accounts with someone, but never got around to it. Jokes on me then I guess.

[rage2]

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It’s funny that people like to quote the stream count until the cows come home, and completely ignore that letting people outside your home use your account is against the terms of service.

It’s a wholistic agreement, you don’t get to cherry pick the parts you like and don’t like. Regardless of who tweets what.

Let me try to explain the timeline better.

1. Netflix comes out
2. People share Netflix
3. Netflix bitches about sharing
4. Netflix adds a plan for sharing
5. Changes terms of service with a caveat for family plan allowing sharing
6. Netflix wants more money. Bitches about sharing.
7. introduces households. Removes family plan (now premium plan) sharing wording. Makes you pay households to share.

How can you not be upset at the double dip? It’s like next they’ll ask you to pay more for unique devices if they want more money lol.

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You can either be mad at Netflix for wanting to turn a profit like some kind of ritard, or be mad at the free riders who drove these policies needed to generate additional revenue.

There’s better ways to address it. Lower the stream count of all existing tiers. Add a new sharing tier and jack up the price. Or, just jack up the price overall. The double dip is no different than Tesla’s shenanigans. End of the day, Netflix made some poor decisions on content, and they can’t do any of it without pissing people off because their content just ain’t great anymore compared to the early days. They wanted to be the new HBO but the content isn’t even close.

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Either way, cheap legit streaming is going the way of the dodo. Welcome to cable 2.0.

Yup. Agree here. D+ bleeding money. HBO bleeding money but propped up by traditional subs and cutting budget.

[shakalaka]

Why you bother man? Let the people pay what they wanna pay. Not everyone minds getting shafted and bummed up the ass by big corps and they don't find anything wrong with such shady business practices. Let them enjoy their lube-less ramming by Netflix. It's really hard for people to grasp that no-one is a 'freerider' in this instance. If I am paying premium 4K 4 screen package then we were lead to believe that it was specifically for sharing purposes along with other propaganda they spread about 'caring is sharing your password'. Literally their fucking words.

So we did pay 20+ per month for the 'premium' for us to be able to have more screen from the original $7-$8 it was.

Ah fuck...there I go explaining to the people again that actually enjoy the big corps butt ramming them.

[mr2mike]

What's the next move that MBA school teaches when this move peaks?
Staff layoffs? It's definitely not salary cuts to upper management.

I'm assuming they're buying time for all employees to get their money out if they can see the wall with the writing on it.
Take a read on how Netflix employee's could take salary.

But also, they're substantially overpaid. The guy answering the phone to your cancel call is making $90k USD.
https://www.levels.fyi/companies/netflix/salaries

Better site with bar graphs.
https://www.comparably.com/companies/netflix/salaries

[ThePenIsMightier]

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What's the next move that MBA school teaches when this move peaks?

Oh, I know this one!!
Take the x% of cancelled subscriptions and increase all subscription prices for remaining customers by the same x%. Wait for cheques to roll in.

[kenny]

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Let me try to explain the timeline better.

1. Netflix comes out
2. People share Netflix
3. Netflix bitches about sharing
4. Netflix adds a plan for sharing
5. Changes terms of service with a caveat for family plan allowing sharing
6. Netflix wants more money. Bitches about sharing.
7. introduces households. Removes family plan (now premium plan) sharing wording. Makes you pay households to share.

#4 never happened though. They introduced the premium tier for 4K streams, not for sharing.

[davidI]

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Your argument loses all merit because Netflix sells tiers that state how many screens you pay for. No one is using the service without paying because the account is in fact paying for 4 screens.

- Basic - watch on 1 supported device at a time
- Standard - watch on 2 supported devices at a time
- Premium - watch on 4 supported devices at a time

As Rage said, the issue is they are double dipping. They already increased price tiers to add more screens as an option, now they are adding a secondary fee for the same thing.

You neglected to mention that the video quality changes a lot between the tiers as well.
720p
1080p
4K

- - - Updated - - -

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This was added recently (not sure when). Earlier tos didn’t have this.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160124...gal/termsofuse

From the 2014 Ts&Cs you linked:

The Netflix service, and any content viewed through our service, are for your personal and non-commercial use only. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access the Netflix service and view movies and TV shows through the service on a streaming-only basis for that purpose.

[ZenOps]

If youtube did a half price sale in Canada, it would be a great time to try. Its all about getting people hooked, as TikTok has shown.

[ZenOps]

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You neglected to mention that the video quality changes a lot between the tiers as well.
720p
1080p
4K

- - - Updated - - -



From the 2014 Ts&Cs you linked:

The Netflix service, and any content viewed through our service, are for your personal and non-commercial use only. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, license to access the Netflix service and view movies and TV shows through the service on a streaming-only basis for that purpose.

But they definitely paved the way to temptation. Its like giving out two or four rental Lambos, each with the exact same keylock and four sets of keys, with the disclaimer "only one person can use them". Its not like they did not know what was going to happen, they were always going to reel the extra Lambos back in and charge more for it.

[rage2]

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#4 never happened though. They introduced the premium tier for 4K streams, not for sharing.

It sure did. It was originally the family plan in 2013.

https://www.vulture.com/2013/04/netf...d-sharers.html

Rewinding back, they started cracking down on sharing as far back as 2011, before settling down to 2 streams per account:

https://stopthecap.com/2011/09/05/ne...-you-pay-more/

4k showed up in 2014 with the house of cards and was available to everyone but then they moved it to the premium 4 stream tier by the end of the year.

https://www.theverge.com/2014/10/12/...r-4k-streaming

[The Cosworth]

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If they've poorly chosen content, that's on them. Continually upping the rates, while neutering good content, but adding tons of fluff (which looks pretty high budget), then creating a barrier which warrants an evaluation of value by breaking the way I use the subscription (I haven't been blocked yet to be fair) is pretty shitty business decision.

You need to spread some karma around before you can give some to Rage2 again.