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Update on Sharing

about.netflix.com

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Re: Update on Sharing

#121

Post by Paul-Craft »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #54
Paul-Craft wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ... " To better serve our customers, here's how we're making things worse for you. FTFY.

Corey Doctrow has a good term for this, or at least it’s him i heard say it: enshitification. I think it just captures the dynamics beautifully, it’s almost poetic.

Ah, yes. Cory Doctrow. One of those people everybody hoped was full of shit and/or irrelevant 20 years ago, who, sadly, turned out not only to be right, but completely relevant (c.f. https://StallmanWasRight.reddit.com)

That's a great word, but wouldn't just plain "shittification" be better?

Re: Update on Sharing

#122

Post by kylemh »

Paul-Craft wrote: post #81
kylemh wrote: post #64

If I'm nomadic and live in a different "household" every 1-3 months... Do I have any options?!

That is actually a very good question. I know people who literally do this, though not only moving "households" every few months, but moving countries. TBH, my guess is NFLX's solution is going to be "Yeah, fuck those 12 people who do that. We've got bigg^H^H^H^H more lucrative problems."

I do this. It's why I asked

Re: Update on Sharing

#123

Post by tinglymintyfrsh »

My first thought: How is this going to block me from Netflixing on a United flight or in a hotel? It seems problematic.

Also, there are nontraditional families with multiple homes. How many accounts do they need?

Re: Update on Sharing

#124

Post by autoexec »

mdasen wrote: post #117
gjulianm wrote: post #14

This is a US rollout of a restriction that they have already deployed in Latin America and Spain among other countries [1], that they restrict your account to a single household. So, no password sharing with friends. I am honestly surprised they keep pushing this. In Spain, Netflix is among the most expensive options, and the most expensive if you consider the features you get (the 7,99 euro option just gives you HD,…

> I am honestly surprised they keep pushing this I'm not surprised. One of the big problems that faces Netflix is market saturation. Lots of companies like Google or Facebook can grow profits by getting you to use their service more. The more you use, the more they earn. Netflix can only get more revenue by getting more paying users or raising prices on existing users. In the United States and Canada, Netflix has 74.…

> To keep growing in many areas, Netflix needs to break up account sharing.

That trick only works once and then they're right back to where they were with zero growth because everyone already has a netflix account or they've been so pissed off at netflix changing the rules of their service and with price hikes, and the decline in content, that they've already canceled and moved on to the many many competitors with bigger/better libraries.

Netflix (and most companies really) shouldn't expect or aim for endless growth. They should just strive to make a healthy profit and sustain that over time. Their profits will increase as their costs go down and global population grows, as well as by moving into new markets.

That said, netflix still has some opportunities to make more money. They can sell their shows on physical media (I have season one of Stranger Things on DVD), and sell merch for their popular shows. Now that netflix is heavily invested in production they have even more opportunities to sell things to fans. Their challenge now is creating content that people want to spend money on, and not pissing off the customers they have.

Re: Update on Sharing

#125

Post by suddenclarity »

kstrauser wrote: post #108
suddenclarity wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I missing something? You quote the CEO saying it's fine to share account within the household and eventually the kids will grow up and get their own accounts when making money and moving. How does it differ from Netflix now saying that you're not allowed to share your account with people OUTSIDE of a household unless paying for it?

Yes, you're missing something: the CEO said, quote, "we love people sharing Netflix". There's no plausible interpretation where they're referring to people living under one roof, because of course those people can share the account. That's why they have profiles in the first place. Additionally, their premium plan includes "download on 6 devices". They didn't intend that for the average person who has 6 Netflix-capab…

You're making assumptions with no context. This is how TechCrunch cites it:

> “We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch,,” Hastings said. “That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.” To illustrate this example, he spoke of how a parent may share their login with their child. And when that child grows up, they will usually subscribe to Netflix, too.

Unless the couch is spanning multiple households, I don't see evidence for the claim. His keynote makes no mention of this so I assume it's mentioned somewhere else but I can't find the source. The CNET site is truly garbage.

Regarding 6 devices, that's nothing today, even considering an average family with two kids. Everyone will have their own phone so that's four. Then you'll have multiple TVs, computers, and possibly one or two tablets. My family of three (one kid), have 10 devices and I don't see that as out of the norm.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/11/netflix-ceo-says-account-s...

Re: Update on Sharing

#126

Post by tinglymintyfrsh »

jakebasile wrote: post #113

I think it's pretty ridiculous for Netflix to define what is and isn't my "household".

What if you have 5 homes (with 5 different ISPs)? Is each a household or are the collection of people households?

What if you have friends who are basically family who more-or-less live with you? Are they not part of the "household"? "Sorry, Bob, while you maybe my daughter's godfather and donated a kidney to me, you're now going to need your own Netflix account because Netflix wants to mash the 'pump corporate profits' button that has been a primary contributing factor of both embarrassing wealth transfer from the poor to the rich and inflation post-pandemic."

Re: Update on Sharing

#127

Post by autoexec »

s1k3s wrote: post #55

Glad they're actually pushing this. The fact that people think it's somehow their right to use stuff for free, that others had to put in work for, is mindblowing for me.

> The fact that people think it's somehow their right to use stuff for free, that others had to put in work for, is mindblowing for me.

People aren't pissed because they can't "use stuff for free" anymore. You can already pirate every show that's on netflix. People are upset because they were sold one thing, and now will not be getting what they paid for. I paid for x number of simultaneous devices/streams. I paid for a service which told me sharing passwords was perfectly fine. That's what I signed up for.

Now netflix changes the rules, which after multiple price increases, a library that has declined in quantity and quality, and an interface that is still terrible and increasingly stuffed with ads there is nothing mindblowing about the hate they're getting. They absolutely deserve to lose customers.

Re: Update on Sharing

#128

Post by autoexec »

phantom784 wrote: post #83
brookst wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if they’re looking at SSID. But if that’s really the case you can just use the same SSID on both places, and maybe use the same IP address space and router MAC. If they’re fingerprinting the home network that should do pretty good?

If you're using Netflix through a browser, they wouldn't have access to the SSID.

I still watch netflix over wired devices.

Re: Update on Sharing

#129

Post by autoexec »

tristanb wrote: post #10
JohnMakin wrote: post #5

So if they are allowing you to use on devices and networks outside of your home or ones you don't normally use, how are they identifying unique individuals or "households?"

Previously i read that the device must connect to your home WIFI connection every N days.

Not all of the devices I watch netflix on are connected to wifi at all. I've got DVD and bluray players that don't even have wireless cards in them.

Re: Update on Sharing

#130

Post by deltarholamda »

bee_rider wrote: post #85
deltarholamda wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they had done this from the get go. My family has never shared a password with anybody, and I'm pretty confident that some of their price hikes reflected the reality that they had to deal with password sharers. All I know is that with the fracturing of the streaming landscape, where everything requires a separate $8.99/$11.99/$15.99 (or whatever) monthly fee, downloading Linux ISOs starts to look more and more…

Should have shared passwords, at least you could trade a Netflix for a Hulu or whatever. Apple TV is $6.99 a month. Netflix looks to be $9.99 (ignoring the ad-subsidized offering which isn’t really comparable). It is kind of hard to share an Apple TV login (at least I wasn’t able to figure out how to share it without also sharing my whole Apple account), so I guess that extra $3 must be the price of all the sharing g…

>Should have shared passwords, at least you could trade a Netflix for a Hulu or whatever.

Yeah, I fell into the "do the right thing, it will be better" trap.

The modern solution is to sign up for a service, binge watch everything on it, and then cancel. But I don't really binge watch, and we have enough people in the house with different tastes it doesn't really work that well.

What really killed me is I pay for PBS Passport. But there are some shows with different licenses (I guess) that are only available on other services.

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