- Netflix has just announced mixed quarterly results
- To reverse the trend, the firm will expand its fight against password sharing
- Increased industry competition is pushing the streaming giant to take more drastic action
Current Netflix subscribers will have to choose this summer: pay extra to continue sharing their password or keep their account to themselves. Students, who have previously used their parents’ account, will also have to find another solution if they do not live under the same roof. As for travelers, they will still be able to access their account without verification, under certain conditions, such as the length of stay.
Netflix thus hopes to regain ground on the streaming market, which is increasingly competitive for the Los Gatos firm. After years of growth, the streaming giant is showing signs of weakness. In the first quarter of 2023, Netflix announced disappointing results. Admittedly, the platform limited the breakage with a turnover of 8.162 billion dollars, in line with predictions.
Password sharing will soon no longer be free in France
Nevertheless, the service lost almost a million subscribers. The fight against password sharing is probably not the most popular measure taken by the platform lately. However, it appears more and more essential for the management of the company which wishes to maximize its revenue per user. This represents a radical paradigm shift: for a long time, the firm tolerated this practice and sometimes even encouraged it in its communications.
According to MacRumors, approximately 222 million Netflix subscriber households share the same password. By fighting this sharing, the platform wants to monetize a hundred million additional users. Thus, Netflix will begin this quarter to implement its new strategy around password sharing, already in force in Spain, Portugal, Canada and New Zealand.
A wider deployment is planned during the summer, when the paid option should appear among French subscribers. However, the firm does not announce any specific precise date for certain markets. The implementation of these supplements in European markets reveals notable differences.
In Spain, for example, the supplement is 6 euros, while in Portugal it is only 4 euros. It is possible that the price in France is higher, because the option planned soon in the United States would be around 8 dollars. Netflix has the technical means to easily detect this practice.
The firm will examine the IP addresses used to connect, unique device identifiers and account activity, among other criteria. If a device not in the same household connects to an account or is constantly in use, Netflix will inform the phone number and email address associated with the primary account to verify the connection. If the verification fails or repeats frequently, Netflix will ask the user to pay extra or create a new account.
