This year, Netflix has again raised the prices of its subscriptions around the world, and the latest increases have affected Europe. Now, Netflix will try to charge some users extra as it has started cracking down on account sharing. They claim that up to 100 million households are not paying for their own subscription because they use that of a third party.
Along with the company's recent earnings report, Netflix also released a letter to shareholders. In it they estimate that 100 million households around the world are using Netflix without paying, because they share accounts with other households that do. Netflix estimates that about 30 million households do so in the United States and Canada, and the rest are distributed throughout the rest of the world.
Netflix does not like that you share account, when millions of people do it
According to their own data, they insist that almost a third of households that use Netflix are not paying for it. Or they are paying others to make the subscription more accessible to you. Netflix acknowledges that account sharing helped fuel its growth, but says users are confused about what is and isn't allowed when it comes to Netflix account sharing.
With this in mind, Netflix will be looking to further shake up users with two new paid sharing features. These features will give account holders the option to pay for additional homes and are already being tested in some regions. Netflix hasn't said when these features will be fully rolled out, but it could be a matter of months. During the presentation of the results, Netflix also admitted losing subscribers, and the share price today is down more than 36% at press time.
Although paying for allowing accounts in more homes can be counterproductive. As we said, many people choose to buy an expensive plan that allows multiple simultaneous reproductions on different devices at the same time, rather than reproductions on the same IP, with which households with large families easily exceed four simultaneous screens. This more expensive plan also allows you to have better quality content. But their prices are very high for many, although not so much if they are shared with other trusted users. Sharing accounts has allowed to attract users by making Netflix more accessible, and who otherwise would not have subscribed.
Source: Kitguru
