by Aliza Majid
In 2017 Netflix tweeted that “love is sharing a password” but that did not age well after the streaming platform started to crack down on password sharing this year.
Since the initial announcement last October, Netflix has begun rolling out their password policy change in various countries including Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, and many other Latin American countries for the first trial.
Mark Wolters, a business professor at the University of Illinois explains why this new policy is being tested in smaller countries first before enforcing it on all accounts across the world.
“You want to test in a small market that you can kind of control and if you tried it over a big market and it went bad the entire company could be ruined. Whereas if it goes badly in a smaller size country it’s not as big of a news item but you can also test to see what works and what didn’t,” Wolters said.
According to Netflix, the new policy change will require users to set a “primary location” with the home network that will require everyone to verify in order to make sure all users live within the same household.
Netflix will require users to verify that they are using their streaming service at their primary location at least once every 31 days.
Amara Bivins, a Netflix subscriber explains how this new policy changes their perspective on the streaming platform.
“I was really surprised that they would do that. Although a lot of people share passwords, it still helps them get plays and streams. It doesn’t make sense for them to take away something that affects a big part of their subscribers. It felt very money-hungry,” Bivins said.
Users will be required to pay more if they want to add profiles for people who do not live in the primary location that the account is registered with.
There are four different subscription plans that users can opt into that can potentially affect how people share their accounts depending on the number of users allowed on each plan.
There are four different subscription plans that users can opt into that can potentially affect how people share their accounts depending on the number of users allowed on each plan.
Netflix’s basic plan was launched in November, a month after the password crackdown was spread all over social media.
“I can see the reason why they’re doing this now because people are saying the $14.99 plan is too expensive for me so Netflix comes along and says look you’re not getting through for sharing the password you can start a new account we have this cheaper option for people,” Wolters said.
As streaming platforms start to include subscription plans with advertisements and crack down on password sharing, the question arises as to how much they begin to differ from cable channels.
“I think that's where you're seeing people saying, look, I'm not going to get rid of cable because I'm tired of paying for seven or eight different services, which is actually more expensive than cable. I think what you'll see is there'll be more consolidation in the streaming services markets,” Wolters said.
There is no clear date as to when these account-sharing policies will be implemented in the United States but the projected timeline is set for early 2023.
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