Will you cancel Netflix if they stop Password Sharing?

[dumpster]

It's a yes from me!  Too many streaming services and I'm paying the entire price I'll subscribe to a better one.  Netflix is great for £5 a month but full price? Naaah.

[multi]

No.

 

I don't share my password and I also think it's totally worth the money for what im offered.

 

Do I really have to list all the netflix good shit again?

[Stig]

I'm the one that pays for Netflix anyway in my family, so nothing with change for me.

 

I use it all the time so it's not like I was paying for it for the benefit of my family anyway.

[Hawklord]

I've never shared my password but I also don't have 4 devices that need 4K streams so I cancelled when they upped the price. Give me a reasonable price for one 4k stream and i'll re-subscribe

[Fierce Poodle]

No. I am trying my best not to be a thieving bastard.

[Alex W.]

20 hours ago, Hawklord said:

I've never shared my password but I also don't have 4 devices that need 4K streams so I cancelled when they upped the price. Give me a reasonable price for one 4k stream and i'll re-subscribe

This is more likely to be the deal breaker for me than anything to do with passwords or accounts. It’s 2022, 4K and HDR are the table stakes.

[erhgiez]

This might come back to bite them.. I pay for the 4K 5 devices option and let my parents and in laws have an account each. They watch it a bit. If Netflix cancel their accounts then I’ll just switch down to the cheaper option, they won’t get their own subscriptions. 
 

In general though, I’m getting sick of everything being spread across 10+ different streaming options. It’s just far easier to download stuff than faff about with subscriptions when I just want to watch a few episodes of something. 
 

I wanted to rewatch Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex again and looked to where I could watch it legally, but the only place was to buy the episodes individually off Amazon, for about £2 each, there’s 52 episodes.. No series discount or anything. My other option was to buy the dvd boxset for a few quid from CeX, which I still might do, or just download it in 5 mins and put it on Plex.

[Wizcat]

Is there any speculation about how they would enforce this, from a technical point of view?

 

The first thought is that it would be ip based detection. But I have Netflix on my laptop and travel all over the place with it.

 

Just really not sure how they can enforce it, short of actually locking it to devices. But that doesn't stop me setting up devices in (eg) my parents house.

[Silent Runner]

Probably - think the poll needs more options. I bought the most expensive sub back during lockdown 1 because I kept getting the 'Too many simultaneous log-ins' error. Because my sister, nephews, nieces and parents were all stuck in their houses and used my account. The only things I've watched recently were Glass Onion (excellent) and Pretty Little Liars (removed in October before I finished it). 

 

If they have a reasonably priced 4K, 1 screen price I might keep it but it's slipping down the subscription services for me. 

[Steve McQueef]

No.

 

I don't share my password.

[Danster]

I share my password with my two daughters, one of whom is at university and the other lives with her mum half the week. The only reason I still have an account is because they both use it a lot. If they block them both from using it then I will have no reason to subscribe any more.

 

I'm kinda hoping they do tbh

 

[SaintAnselm]

No as I only pay a fiver a month as it’s part of my Sky package, though I would never even bother with it of I was paying the full price they charge for it these days.

[David Kenny]

On 25/12/2022 at 23:00, multi said:

No.

 

I don't share my password and I also think it's totally worth the money for what im offered.

 

Do I really have to list all the netflix good shit again?

I can't think of the last good thing I watched on Netflix. If it wasn't for my kids watching absolute rubbish on it you couldn't pay me to have it.

 

I should say I don't watch TV much, or ever really, only films. Their selection of movies is generally terrible.

[fasteasyfree]

I do wish there were more granular options, like only paying for a single 4k stream, and then others at 1080p for reduced rates etc.

 

The password sharing crackdown doesn't make sense in how they could implement it without pissing off 'genuine' users. For instance, reauthenticating a child's session when they're being looked after by their grandparents. Or someone watching from a mobile device hopping between multiple WiFi networks. What about a child who's parents have split, but watched Netflix from their ps5 in the opposite house to the parent paying the bill.

 

According to Netflix's terms of use:

Quote

A Netflix account is for people who live together in a single household.

 

No mention about where they consume the content. 

 

I think there are far too many common examples that undermine any attempt to crack down on this.

[Pelekophoros]

Not really. You just provide a flow for authentication, take the hit on customer service calls and lost revenues through cancellations and track how many new subscriptions you get as you roll out enforcement.

 

Provided new revenue exceeds lost, they're all good. 

 

This is just a risk appetite decision. Given subscriber growth has stalled as a result of a) cost of living cancellations and b) password sharing, they need to do something from a business perspective. They can always switch enforcement off if they need to.

 

Haven't they already tested this in South America somewhere? 

 

Edit: the mechanism they are providing has been reported on. Makes sense. 

[ZOK]

8 hours ago, David Kenny said:

I can't think of the last good thing I watched on Netflix. If it wasn't for my kids watching absolute rubbish on it you couldn't pay me to have it.

 

I should say I don't watch TV much, or ever really, only films. Their selection of movies is generally terrible.

It’s not really a ‘films’ service, it’s more an excellent series and documentaries service. Having said that, they’ve also got a list of essential Neflix Original movies that is as long as your arm.

 

[Broker]

So how am I supposed to use Netflix? We pay for it and our login has four accounts on it, mine, my girlfriends and one for each of the kids. Only two of those accounts can be used at a time, if three of us try to watch then it says we can’t. Generally we watch at home, but if we’re on holiday we use it there. One of my kids uses his account at his mum’s house sometimes. 
 

Am I using it in a way that’s ok? Would this affect me?

[SeanR]

my poor mother, upstairs in her granny flat*, unable to use her netflix profile on my account

 

* 6 miles away

[Uncle Mike]

Check out Broker with his multiple girlfriends.

[Ste Pickford]

Netflix remains the only streaming service that feels worth a permanent subscriptions to, as someone in the house probably watches something on it every day.  There's not a lot of 10/10 stuff on there, they seem to specialise in 7/10 tv, but there's always something watchable.  We've got into watching Korean tv shows, a lot of which are great, and very long (16 1 hour episodes per season), so we've always got a Korean show on the go if there's nothing else to watch.

 

All the others feel like they're worth subbing for a month to watch a specific show, and hoover up the odd thing for variety, about once or twice a year.  Disney, Apple, Prime, etc.  My missus does have the 1 year sub to prime, so we have that all the time, but there's so little we want to watch there we'd be fine with a month or so every now and then for what we watch on it.

[Hitcher]

If I wasn't signed up to a Turkish account (~£4/month for the top tier) I'd have already canceled as Netflix is the most expensive streaming service out of the lot. This just smacks of greed and could even backfire if people with separate accounts decide it would be cheaper to have one main account plus extra members.

[choddo]

On 26/12/2022 at 19:58, Alex W. said:

This is more likely to be the deal breaker for me than anything to do with passwords or accounts. It’s 2022, 4K and HDR are the table stakes.

 

In the same universe, Sky are still charging extra for HD.

[Floyd]

I'm currently piggybacking on my brother in laws account as long as it lasts, I don't think I'd have my own subscription all year, maybe a couple of months. I already pay for amazon prime and get the TV and music. That with a TV package and broadband is enough. There's too many steaming services now and content is being divided up too much. Piracy is back up with torrents becoming popular again (as far as  I can see) and I can probably see me getting a copy of a show or film I really want from my cousin Don in the not to distant future. 

[Flub]

I cancelled my account because they support transphobes.

[englishbob]

What is the definition of password sharing here?

 

I'm the bill payer so the account is in my name (email address) and we all use it under my house and each member of the family has their own profile - and this will be across multiple devices - TVs, laptops and phones

 

During the pandemic I set up my parents as a profile and went over to their house and set up my email address/password and sometimes they watch it to. But if this is password sharing - how do they technically know it's not me living at 2 different addresses during the week?

 

I pay for the most expensive plan there is - stupidly thought their film selection would be in 4K - it's not really (only Netflix produced films and a very very small handful of others actually are).

[Broker]

6 hours ago, Flub said:

I cancelled my account because they support transphobes.

Which ones?

[Pelekophoros]

18 hours ago, Broker said:

So how am I supposed to use Netflix? We pay for it and our login has four accounts on it, mine, my girlfriends and one for each of the kids. Only two of those accounts can be used at a time, if three of us try to watch then it says we can’t. Generally we watch at home, but if we’re on holiday we use it there. One of my kids uses his account at his mum’s house sometimes. 
 

Am I using it in a way that’s ok? Would this affect me?

 

1 hour ago, englishbob said:

What is the definition of password sharing here?

 

I'm the bill payer so the account is in my name (email address) and we all use it under my house and each member of the family has their own profile - and this will be across multiple devices - TVs, laptops and phones

 

During the pandemic I set up my parents as a profile and went over to their house and set up my email address/password and sometimes they watch it to. But if this is password sharing - how do they technically know it's not me living at 2 different addresses during the week?

 

I pay for the most expensive plan there is - stupidly thought their film selection would be in 4K - it's not really (only Netflix produced films and a very very small handful of others actually are).

 

If you live in the same house as the account holder, you are simply a profile on the account and the only restriction is the number of screens you can watch Netflix on at any one point. Want more screens? Pony up some cash.

 

If someone is accessing your account through a profile but they do not live in your household, it is password sharing. They are the people who will be affected, not you.

 

How are they going to do that? Read on.

 

[X_2_0]

I would have cancelled my Netflix a while ago if it wasn’t for the fact family members are using it.

 

I don’t mind paying if they are getting something from it.

 

if this stops then I would go on to monthly cycles of switching between Netflix/Amazon/Disney rather than all 3 at once 

[englishbob]

1 hour ago, Pelekophoros said:

 

 

If you live in the same house as the account holder, you are simply a profile on the account and the only restriction is the number of screens you can watch Netflix on at any one point. Want more screens? Pony up some cash.

 

If someone is accessing your account through a profile but they do not live in your household, it is password sharing. They are the people who will be affected, not you.

 

How are they going to do that? Read on.

 

 

Thank you.

 

Assume it's a hopefully intelligent mix of account activity patterns with a bit of IP logging going on.

 

Using IP address only would be a clusterfuck with so many potential false positives.

[Clipper]

2 hours ago, Broker said:

Which ones?

I assume the problematic stand-up stuff from gervais and ,I think, Dave chappell?