News JVTech Netflix Wants To Avoid Massive Losses From Its Fight Against Shared Accounts: Here Are The Future Platform Changes Designed To Hold You Back
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In 2023, Netflix is making the fight against password sharing its top priority. Except that by attacking this very widespread practice, the streaming service takes the risk of losing a lot of subscribers. Here’s what Netflix is doing to turn that potential loss into big wins…always potential.
Netflix struggles and seeks a voice towards profitability
Intuitively, one would think that Netflix is a company that is doing extremely well. Overwhelming leader in the streaming market, Netflix is sounding its “TOUDOUM” for more than 230 million subscribed accounts. However, the year 2022 ended on a sad note: profitability is still not there.
Producing and hosting thousands, if not millions, of hours of films, series and anime of all kinds is extremely expensive, especially in this post-COVID period marked by galloping inflation. So what to do? Netflix is gradually increasing its prices, trying to set up a subscription formula with ads (little flop), trying to maintain its growth in the number of subscribers… but none of this is enough.
In 2023, the American company therefore made a big decision: to tackle the problem of account sharing. This is THE big Netflix project right now. According to Reed Hastings, the co-CEO of Netflix who left his post 3 weeks ago, there would be 100 million people who would take advantage of the streaming service without paying for it, therefore using the password of a loved one. This represents a monstrous shortfall.
End of account sharing on Netflix: towards the flight of subscribers?
In a blog post published on its US site on Wednesday February 8, Netflix announces the first countries that are already affected by this limitation of account sharing: Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. It is surprising that the United States is not among them: obviously, Netflix has decided to preserve its strongest market for some time yet.
As you can see, 2 European countries are already affected by these new limitations. It is only a matter of time before France is also affected by the new Netflix measures.
Be that as it may, the implementation of this restriction obviously makes subscribers react. Many people arranged with their relatives to share an account and the price of the subscription that goes with it. Without this pooling allowing access to the service at a lower cost, many people risk simply unsubscribing. The operation is therefore extremely risky for the company seeking to achieve profitability.
The thousands of reactions from angry Internet users attest that the wave of unsubscriptions has already begun to break. Netflix must react. You know what ? Not only will they indeed react, but in addition, we already have a small overview of the strategies put in place by Netflix to keep as many people as possible on its platform and increase its number of subscribers.
Netflix’s Upcoming Changes to Avoid Heavy Loss of Subscribers and Money
Above all, Netflix has understood that it should not wage a ruthless war on people who share their account, especially with their loved ones. The measures taken to limit the impact of passwords blown in the ears will be much less drastic than what everyone expected.
Initially, Netflix’s idea was to force all users of the same account to connect to the home’s main WiFi network at least once every 31 days. After this time, the account is blocked (and sorry for your road trip in Latin America, it will be without Netflix).
The constraint is now lighter: when someone connects via a network other than the home’s WiFi, a code sent by email or text message must be entered within 15 minutes on the device attempting the connection. All you have to do is share access to a mailbox or automatically redirect Netflix emails to continue using the same account in several different homes. It’s more painful than before, but it’s playable.
In addition to this relaxation, Netflix introduces some interface improvements for make the use of the streaming platform ever more ergonomic. Navigating on Netflix must be as pleasant as possible, much more pleasant than browsing the interfaces of the competition.
The Premium 4K plan also very recently received a slight improvement: offline content can now be downloaded to 6 devices instead of 4 in the past. This addition is there to show that despite its anti-password sharing policy, Netflix is trying to do things to make life easier for large families or people who really need a lot of simultaneous screens.
Still with a view to increasing retention, Netflix is improving the sound quality of its content, particularly with the arrival of Audio Spatial (always with a Premium account). Netflix already offered its home content in Dolby Atmos and a lot of movies and series in 5.1. Here, the goal is not to multiply the channels but to better render the spatialization effects on very simple stereo. Let’s not forget that most people don’t have a 5.1 sound system, let alone Dolby Atmos. Already more than 700 films or series are Spatial Audio compatible, including Wednesday, Stranger Things and Joker.
We could also talk about the company’s ever more massive investment in content, quite simply. Series like the live action One Piece should bring people back. The streaming service is also trying to branch out by stepping into the world of video game. Since there is always more investment in Netflix Games, some very cool titles could soon see the light of day.
Will these small changes be enough? Case to follow. Netflix will still have to work on the quality of its offer to avoid the loss of subscribers and the potential loss of millions of dollars.
