Netflix Eyeing Solutions to Shared Account Abuse
October 22, 2019
Netflix has traditionally turned a blind eye to subscribers sharing their account with multiple friends — citing the practice as cheap marketing.
Now with Disney and Apple launching competing SVOD services next month, and subscriber growth slowing, Netflix is quietly looking to stop the practice that reportedly costs the SVOD behemoth millions in lost revenue per month.
While Netflix has always limited how many users can stream content simultaneously, multiple users can still use one $8.99 monthly basic account by creating differing user profiles and sharing passwords when accessing at a different location.
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The standard $12.99 plan allows users to stream on two screens at the same time, while the $15.99 premium plan enables the use of four screens simultaneously.
Magid Research found that about 10% of Netflix users globally do not pay for the service, which accounts for almost 16 million people, or about $144 million in lost monthly revenue.
On the company’s recent fiscal call, Greg Peters, chief product officer, said the service was aware of the issue and considering steps to curb abuse.
“We continue to monitor [password sharing],” Peters said. “We’ll continue to look at the situation, and we’ll see those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edge of that, but we’ve got no big plans at this point in time in terms of doing something different there.”