It is no mystery that Netflix wants to limit the widespread practice of account sharing, a measure that could help increase the streaming giant’s revenues at a time when financial results are not shining.
The novelty could be fully operational by the end of the year, preceded by a necessary test period. It is precisely the first results of the tests that cause discussion and highlight aspects that Netflix should keep in mind when it decides to extend the new measures to other markets.
THE FIRST CRITICALITIES HIGHLIGHTED BY THE TESTS
Since last March, the measures to limit the sharing of accounts have been active (in experimental form) in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica and are substantiated in the request sent to subscribers to pay an additional fee (about 2 euros more) to share the account with other people outside your family. Easy to say on paper, but the practical implementation has highlighted more than one criticality. In summary:
- Some users were not informed of the news by e-mail or notification sent by Netflix, even after two months from the introduction of the measure;
- Practical application varies from user to user – some ignored validation prompts at no penalty to the account owner. A user, on the other hand, stated that he was never informed of the change and that he continued to share the account without difficulty;
- Also, the definition of the concept of “family” has raised some perplexity: some users may also consider their closest family members (eg uncles, nephews, etc.) members of their own family. Netflix appears to be aware of this ambiguity;
- A Netflix customer service representative in Peru confirmed that they are providing verification codes to subscribers who call to allow family members to use the account from another location. In this way, even family members who are not under the same roof can continue to use the shared account for free;
- As an effect of the subscription price increase, some users have decided to cancel their subscription.
The information above comes from a survey conducted by the Rest of the World which interviewed Netflix subscribers in Peru. A spokesperson for Netflix commented in a statement released to colleagues at The Verge:
The millions of members actively sharing an account in these countries have been notified by email, but given the importance of this change, we are slowly increasing notifications within the product. We are satisfied so far.
It is desirable that Netflix will be able to capitalize on the results of the experimentation phase when it decides to extend the measure to other countries. In addition to the communication problems, the effect on existing subscriptions of the additional fee is sobering: Netflix may continue to lose subscribers rather than gain them.
Also, for this reason, the fight against password sharing should be associated with the introduction of a cheaper plan with advertising – this change is also expected by the end of the year.