Netflix Implements Extra Charges for Account Sharing Outside Household in EU
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heffeque
Yup, they implemented this a few months ago in Spain and... Netflix lost a big chunk of users.
To fight against it, Netflix had another brilliant idea: spam those lost users with tons of emails begging them to come back.
I'm fairly certain that Netflix is filled with "yes-men", because I'm not really sure who in their right mind would think that cancelling important series half-way, introducing a political agenda in almost every series/movies in detriment of quality, denying the very thing that made Netflix triumph (account sharing, be it inside family or not, be it in the same location or not), charging extra for it for no apparent reason, then spamming users that didn't agree with those decisions...
All great ideas!
This, people, is how companies go down. With unchecked decision-making.
fantaskarsef
They go down because they fail in their business at this point. Which is offering good content at reasonable prices so users come and stay.
It's still my preferred platform in terms of UI design, but the string of happenings is pretty obvious:
1 growing competition since the best times (AppleTV, amazon prime streaming, Disney+, HBOmax, Paramount, and that's only the US competition)
2 starting with turning obviously bad pitches into multi million dollar shows and movies (bad in more than just any "political agenda" that people always are looking for as it seems)
3 with dropping user number gains they thought repeating and intensifying step 2 was going to save them
4 further dropping user numbers lead to price increases
5 which again turn into dropping user numbers
6 that makes them want to generate more users with moving against account sharing without paying extra beyond the first subscription
7 this will lead to further dropping numbers because of respite (and available competition and quite so still alive and well piracy)
And then?
geogan
AppleTV, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Paramount also competition here in EU.
I'm not sure about HBOMax though, haven't seen it, I think there is some problem with its exclusive deals with Sky TV UK and all its stuff streaming on Sky Atlantic exclusively (eg Game of Thrones etc) so they can't open competition for Sky TV.
Anyway yes I cancelled Netflix a few months ago, after having it for a few years... found myself watching Amazon Prime and Disney+ more and more, and nothing much on Netflix worth paying monthly for.
I also currently am trying Paramount+ but not impressed so far... terrible quality app on NVidia Shield... does not do subtitles at all right, and only STEREO sound for everything. Was watching Picard seasons 1-2 and missed ALL the dialog in French/Spanish which should have shown forced English subtitles and only in stereo sound.
Then realized Picard was also playing on Amazon Prime and in full 5.1 surround and with WORKING FORCED SUBTITLES!
Will be cancelling Paramount+ soon.
gUNN1993
Netflix is just like all these tech companies that try to use algorithms and AI to shortcut to success, how many of the best shows on TV would have been cancelled 2 seasons in if Netflix had been in charge. And how many that would have found their footing and audience in season 3 did get cancelled.
Everyone's looking for unicorns when there's great horses being turned into glue all around.
schmidtbag
Netflix shot themselves in the foot a long time ago when they allowed so many concurrent logins from different places and basically told people sharing passwords was okay. They didn't need to be so generous at the time; I think having 2 logins from different IPs (but several logins from the same IP) would've been sufficient from day 1, but people are much less receptive to having things taken away than to have never had to begin with.
Anyway, the amount of competition in streaming services isn't just a problem for Netflix, it's a problem for consumers too. I suspect Netflix is going to disappear within the 2020s but they won't be the only ones. It's too expensive for most people to do multiple services, and because there's so much exclusivity, none of the services have enough compelling content to earn my subscription.
anticupidon
Looks like I need to cancel my account.
Not enough content for the wokeness pushed down the throat.
And now this.
Ricepudding
assuming they don't U turn I reckon they will, I share with my family and just cancelled... whats the point of paying for 4 screens £16 (which is double most other subs) when it would just be me, and even then its 11 for just me, unless I want ads and even thats too much compared to my other subs which are £4 and £5 a month xD
barely used netflix but think my family did, so they might grab a single £11 sub, but netflix still down £5 then... so yay for them, see many are cancelling anyway, guess they're hoping people will sub, but they dont offer enough. Amazon prime is £7 a month, Disney is what 7 or 8, some other places are cheaper... Netflix smoking that good stuff if they think this roll out will benefit them 🙂
fantaskarsef
Of course you are right, but I specifically was mentioning US streaming services. There's a couple more of them in countries like Brazil, India, China, Japan, etc. which are nor really as international, but on their local market, still compete with Netflix.
tsunami231
I notice this last night when I tried to login on dish receiver and my tv at NC house, they were verfied as part of house hold though
alanm
Ha ha...
‘Cancel Netflix account’ Google searches increase 2,939% after password-sharing crackdown
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/technology/cancel-netflix-account-google-searches-increase-2-939-after-password-sharing-crackdown/ar-AA1bG5FN
LimitbreakOr
I wish you guys were right but unfortunately when they did the same thing in Canada their profits went up. I am one of the ones who canceled the account, I will just find other means of watching the things i like.
Catspaw
To be fair, we don't really know if Netflix was viable long term with the old and good strategy.
There are 2 possible scenarios:
1. They couldn't not actually run this long term so they wanted to get the users first, then implement worse contracts and lose a % of their users but start making a profit on the ones that stayed.
2. They wanted more money and got too greedy. Probably someone who knew they could get a bigger bonus this year and were quitting next year anyway if they made those changes.
wavetrex
https://twitter.com/primevideouk/status/1661760395659321346
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fw-GMPeWYAAsSzq?format=jpg
Burrrrrrn.
fantaskarsef
Dude you have to share the whole picture here, not just Amazon's... but also Netflix's response:
cucaulay malkin
I saw "extra charges" and my brain read the first word as Nvidia not Netflix automatically.
wavetrex
Yes, but you are reading it wrong...
The PrimeUK picture is the response (reaction) to the old tweet from 2017.
That line below is not a response.
fantaskarsef
So... what happens if I happen to live 50/50 at home or at my girlfriend's? With a registered address with the government on both addresses (which I can do here in Austria)?
Does Netflix then charge twice although legally they charge me extra for my legal living address? Just asking out of curiosity (thought experiment)
fantaskarsef
That is true but I found it funny how amazon dug out that age old tweet, that's why I meant you should share 😀
wavetrex
They didn't really dug it out, because it's been circulating widely and getting retweeted ever since netflix announced these new charges.
So what happens if I travel a lot and wanted to binge my shows from 100 different networks all around the country ?
fantaskarsef
That's basically a TOS question just as mine. They might argue that one's supposed to use it only in a single location (my approach) or on a single device (your's maybe?) but both requirements from Netflix don't stand the test I'd say.
I did not read the terms of service, but honestly, I'm not sure how they will ever have a legal way to force me to watch only in one location or on one device. But I also do not have a lawyer at hand that just waits for me to (counter-) sue a billion dollar international company.
