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Sharing Your Netflix Account

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Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#111

Post by taeric »

nickthegreek wrote: post #75
taeric wrote: post #25

I'm not sure I care that they are trying to get people to stop sharing accounts. At large, that feels fine and I'm always curious the lengths people will go through to not pay a small subscription fee. Especially for things they actively use the heck out of. (Notably, I seem to only know of people that do this where both sides of the share watch a ton of television.) I am not at all looking forward to it again thinki…

This is the thing, I pay for a family plan with 4 concurrent streams. I allow my mom and brother to use this account. They barely use it. But the service isn't worth $20 to me if they cut them off. I will just cancel it, and they wont pick it up either. If you sell me 4 concurrent streams, then I want to be able to use them regardless of physical location.

I just find this hard to really come to terms with. Why is access for others a consideration to what it is worth to you? And do you have any logic that would allow you to share with family, but would not allow friends to share? For that matter, why can't I just pay one login for my entire neighborhood?

(And before you think that is obviously wrong, realize that some buildings do just that sort of agreement for cable tv access.)

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#112

Post by andsoitis »

earthling8118 wrote: post #101
tptacek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because they do explicit vacation passes. If you literally maintain two households --- or, like my family, have a kid in a college apartment --- you're probably going to have to spring for a second account. Which, fair enough: the college apartment also requires us to spring for a second ISP bill, second utilities, second toaster; it was nice to get away with not duplicating the Netflix bill, but not reasonable t…

No, it is not "fair enough". Those aren't the same situations. You need to pay a second ISP bill because that requires physical infrastructure to be laid down and maintained. Same with utilities and the toaster. Once you have the network connection you can access Netflix just fine. Unless they place an arbitrary restriction on it.

By that logic, everyone on earth can share a single account!

Perhaps you didn’t know, but Netflix operates one of the biggest CDNs on the planet: https://openconnect.netflix.com/en/

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#113

Post by torstenvl »

taeric wrote: post #25

I'm not sure I care that they are trying to get people to stop sharing accounts. At large, that feels fine and I'm always curious the lengths people will go through to not pay a small subscription fee. Especially for things they actively use the heck out of. (Notably, I seem to only know of people that do this where both sides of the share watch a ton of television.) I am not at all looking forward to it again thinki…

> that feels fine

Sure. It's also fine for everyone they're betraying to cancel their subscriptions. I don't understand what your point is. Are you saying it isn't fine to be upset?

Netflix specifically promoted account sharing. Paying for multiple streams, "love is sharing your password," etc. And they made millions of dollars off that marketing during the pandemic lockdowns. Now they want to pull the rug out from under people. They deserve every bit of criticism they're getting.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#114

Post by mc32 »

gary_0 wrote: post #98
BulgarianIdiot wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your thesis is that piracy is cheaper. Ok thanks.

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Gabe Newell, 10+ years ago Once upon a time, Netflix itself was considered the case in point! Then video streaming splintered into a dozen services and now Netflix has decided to make things even more complicated. People don't learn, I guess.

I think that's a bit unfair. Businesses go through business cycles. I never worked there, nor have insight (obviously) but you know the business climate changes, your competitors change and you have to adjust or experience consequences. Sometimes you need to grow subscriptions, sometimes you need to grow revenue, sometimes you have more flexibility, and sometimes less (Netflix has to re-enter agreements with content owners and creators and those can change and they have to adjust and also business changes). However, it seems people only envision greedy accountants and Executives rubbing hands at the prospect.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#115

Post by torstenvl »

taeric wrote: post #111
nickthegreek wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the thing, I pay for a family plan with 4 concurrent streams. I allow my mom and brother to use this account. They barely use it. But the service isn't worth $20 to me if they cut them off. I will just cancel it, and they wont pick it up either. If you sell me 4 concurrent streams, then I want to be able to use them regardless of physical location.

I just find this hard to really come to terms with. Why is access for others a consideration to what it is worth to you? And do you have any logic that would allow you to share with family, but would not allow friends to share? For that matter, why can't I just pay one login for my entire neighborhood? (And before you think that is obviously wrong, realize that some buildings do just that sort of agreement for cable…

If Netflix had advertised itself with "neighborliness is sharing a password" and encouraged people to sign up for 30-screens-at-a-time plans, you might have a point. But they didn't.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#116

Post by joshspankit »

ZeroCool2u wrote: post #38

My Mom lives on the West Coast while we live on the East. She's almost 70 and on a fixed income, so I pay for Netflix access for all of us and I'm happy to do so. However, if they block her access I can't see any reason to keep my 4k plan. I can get anything we want on a Plex server and give her whatever she wants to watch that way. I was already on the fence with the lack of content on Netflix, but this may just be…

Your logic seems to conclude that you keep paying for Netflix, but that your mom will be the only one to use it.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#117

Post by taylodl »

I don't care. Netflix is free to run their business into the ground as they see fit. I've been thinking about cancelling anyway because their content just isn't worth the cost. This helps make the decision.

Coming soon to HN: announcement of massive layoffs at Netflix.

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#118

Post by andsoitis »

torstenvl wrote: post #113
taeric wrote: post #25

I'm not sure I care that they are trying to get people to stop sharing accounts. At large, that feels fine and I'm always curious the lengths people will go through to not pay a small subscription fee. Especially for things they actively use the heck out of. (Notably, I seem to only know of people that do this where both sides of the share watch a ton of television.) I am not at all looking forward to it again thinki…

> that feels fine Sure. It's also fine for everyone they're betraying to cancel their subscriptions. I don't understand what your point is. Are you saying it isn't fine to be upset? Netflix specifically promoted account sharing. Paying for multiple streams, "love is sharing your password," etc. And they made millions of dollars off that marketing during the pandemic lockdowns. Now they want to pull the rug out from u…

While it isn’t unnatural to react so emotionally to this, I think the only thing to really ask yourself is: do you enjoy the shows and movies that Netflix has? Is it worth the price? If the answer is yes, then who cares how they evolve their terms?

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#119

Post by neogodless »

tptacek wrote: post #10
elektor wrote: post #7

Oh boy, here we go. Very curious to see how stringent they are going to be in enforcing this. This is going to disrupt a lot of multi-generational families who share an account but don't all live under the same roof.

What does "multi-generational" have to do with anything? My mom doesn't live under my roof, and also I have no business sharing my Netflix account with her.

What does a "roof" have to do with internet content you pay for?

Answer: nothing!

Their 4k plan wording: "Watch on 4 supported devices at a time"

OK - I pay them, we use up to 4 supported devices at a time. End of story!

What's next, you can't get a 4-line cell phone plan unless all 4 lines are "under the same roof"? Makes just about the same amount of sense!

The "live together" limitation is being added for "business" reasons to charge more for the same service. There's no way to get 4K without paying for 4 simultaneous screens, but they're making a new limitation so you have to pay for 8 simultaneous screens to still get 4k if there's a second roof involved.

Give me a 1 stream, 4K plan for $10/month and I'll be happy to pay for a second plan for my in-laws (who watch 1 or 2 episode a week)!

Re: Sharing Your Netflix Account

#120

Post by hirundo »

fbernier wrote: post #58
taeric wrote: post #25

I'm not sure I care that they are trying to get people to stop sharing accounts. At large, that feels fine and I'm always curious the lengths people will go through to not pay a small subscription fee. Especially for things they actively use the heck out of. (Notably, I seem to only know of people that do this where both sides of the share watch a ton of television.) I am not at all looking forward to it again thinki…

I can't think of a way they can enforce almost anything without annoying a bunch of people with false positives. If someone has a secondary home like a chalet they go to from time to time, they'd have to pay for a second account?

Presumably they know when they are streaming for a given account. They could simply say an account can be used for a single stream, and decline to start a second concurrent stream for the same account. Include download playbacks as a form of stream. The headache of coordinating watch times when sharing accounts would incentivise additional subscriptions.
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