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Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

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Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#121

Post by rickdeckard »

kmac_ wrote: post #110
rickdeckard wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but the bigger picture is much more interesting IMO, as Spain has become a highly-competitive market for VoD, is overly saturated with suppliers and we're in a recession year with rising cost of living. Put into context of the same source's (Kantar) report from end of last year on Spain's VoD consumption, it would be much more interesting to know 1.) how many paying subs each of the providers lost explicitly, an…

And that opens another risk for Netflix. Paying users that canceled will be more eager to check the competition, and migrated user is harder to regain. Anyway, the catalogue is so fragmented that cyclic migration makes sense.

The paying user in Spain is already among those who use on average 3.3 VoD-services. He already thoroughly checked the competition, he's merely deciding to cut his cost.

So in the end the issue is the competitiveness of the content at the given price for this market.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#122

Post by commitpizza »

alkonaut wrote: post #76
nprateem wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably geo IP and calculating feasible travel times. E.g. if 2 clients connect that are 50 miles away within 5 minutes creds are obviously being shared.

That would give way WAY too many false positives. If I'm watching on the bus while my wife watches at home it would trigger. Similar if we have 2 homes etc. It would also rule out anyone using VPNs etc. Seems like a complete no-go and would see a huge chunk of paying users go simply because the product is now much worse for people who are not sharing accounts. That just can't be it.

Probably they recognize ips so they'll realize that you are sharing if you are logging in from another ip over time. I think it's like at least once every 30 days or so, that'll protect most people from false positives when travelling.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#123

Post by theonlybutlet »

elAhmo wrote: post #99
pallas_athena wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be all better (for the customer) if video streaming services were like music streaming services. Want to hear an album? it's on Spotify / Apple Music / Deezer / Qobuz... You pick the one that offers the best user experience (or unique features like HD songs). Exclusives are basically non-existent.

This is quite hard to achieve with original comment getting the spotlight and being a differentiator between services. For "the rest" of the content, I think the situation is pretty much close to streaming services with music.

Agreed, but I think it only works to a point. Content is becoming more commoditized/more generic (maximise margins/cash in on some big trend). This, coupled with way too many new services claiming exclusive originals and people are deciding to not even bother watching it or just to sail the high seas. It's much like at one point the music streaming services had exclusives too. Sorry Spotify I'd rather just not bother listening to Rammstein than have yet another subscription.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#124

Post by oblio »

mypastself wrote: post #100
Varqu wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to see that free market competition actually worsened the customer offering when it comes to streaming services. Back in the days, Netflix was a one-to-see-all service and that was also one of the reasons why it took people from torrenting to paying for movies. Nowadays, if you want to watch a particular movie, you have maybe a 10% chance that it is available on the streaming service that you are cur…

The competition against another media giant, Blockbuster, created Netflix in the first place. It wasn’t a state-owned monopoly.

Yeah, but there was no real competition for Netflix' main business, streaming, for at least 5 years, when everyone was happy with the show selection.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#125

Post by throwaway290 »

m000 wrote: post #75
MadSudaca wrote: post #42

It's funny. Right now I have access to around 5 streaming services while I only pay for 2. My girlfriend's friend has access to Netflix, my sis HBO. I provide access to Disney+ and Prime to my family. I used to get YT premium from my sis's boyfriend, but they detected I'm not in the family household and they kicked me out. If it wasn't because other people use my accounts (and I use theirs), I wouldn't be paying for…

> If they close the door to account sharing, maybe the subscriptions will start falling like domino pieces. If people turn out to not watch that much content to warrant 3-4 subscriptions per (strict) household, I wonder if this could lead to a Highlander-like streaming showdown: There can be only one. The thing there is that Netflix should try to avoid the showdown, not push towards it, because they are the least equ…

Apple owns and produces AAA content. Foundation, Severance spring to mind.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#127

Post by mseepgood »

finnish-food wrote: post #68
dmix wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I used to get YT premium from my sis's boyfriend, but they detected I'm not in the family household and they kicked me out. I'm surprised you achieved that at all. Google accounts are locked down hardcore... As it should be My gf wanted me to share my ChatGPT plus account but I signed up via Gmail and it was impossible. All of these sites can easily lock it down but choose not to. We're probably living in the Golde…

“ living in the Golden era.” If you actually lived in a Golden Era entertainment would be free, quality, and meant to enrich the people instead of advertise and moralize to them. I really don’t understand how a DVD collection is an “essential service” either. Or why you would effectively choose not to look at your watching statistics and then simply buy the media you watch the most. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1345034685…

> enrich the people instead of advertise and moralize to them

How does morality not enrich people? Isn't moral behaviour a good thing?

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#128

Post by pdimitar »

pokepim wrote: post #9
not_your_vase wrote: post #3

Okay, but 6-700k of this million were not paying users, but password-borrowers.

They are probably going back to torrenting and similar. When disney was slow to rollout in some countries my friends did not want to wait for Mandalorian to drop with Disney plus over there in Europe. They just downloaded it for free and did not even need to sign up for disney when it came one year later. If the streaming companies start to provide subpar and cumbersome service and charge hundreds of dollars for it p…

Why was this comment dead?

Since when are HN comments policed for the word "torrent"?

Vouched it so it's visible. It also makes a valid point, torrenting is definitely a reality and denying it will not make it go away.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#129

Post by vidarh »

rickdeckard wrote: post #98
vidarh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But note that it correlates to a loss of paying users too . "Only" 2/3 of those users were sharing a password. There's another danger here for them, and that is cultural. Currently e.g. my girlfriend users my password. It means we both watch the same things, and talk about things that are on Netflix, and that serves as a reason for me to keep watching Netflix too. A whole lot of my Netflix watching is down to her. If…

> As long as people keep watching Netflix they have a chance to convert them to paying users. I'm not rejecting this (and I'm also not a fan of Netflix's practice here), but when REALLY thinking about it, how would that work practically without devaluing your product/service? If people are repeatedly sneaking into your cinema and you don't crack down on them, but let them watch every time because one day they may buy…

Hence why my last paragraph contained ways of putting restrictions in place that'd make it less practical/desirable to keep sharing. (Here's one more suggestion: Add premium content, and let anyone buy from any profile... Now you have a strong incentive not to share with people you can't trust to not buy stuff on your account... I'd never share my Amazon Prime Video access for that reason).

In terms of conversion avenue, consider e.g. kids moving out of the house. My son has his own Netflix profile. For now there's no incentive for him to get his own, and having him get his own would be impractical because he most often wants to watch it on my TV. But once he has a family of his own running into a profile limit would be an incentive to get his own subscription eventually.

A lot of people are in situations where they initially legitimately are in the same household, then move out for all kinds of reasons (flat shares, kids moving out, breakups), might not want the hassle of switching profiles right away, but eventually want more flexibility (more profiles), or privacy.

(Incidentally, a feature they really need is a "convert this profile to a separate subscription"; that goes for a lot of services that are not at all geared for a situation of kids growing up and wanting to untangle their online lives from that of their parents)

A lot of this problem would also just go away if they priced based on a combination of simultaneous streams and number of profiles and stopped worrying about where they are. E.g. there's never any reason for more than 5 simultaneous streams from my Netflix subscription. But if I had to pay per simultaneous stream I'd probably only want to pay for 3.

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