Netflix Is Bleeding Millions Due to Password Sharing

Megalith

Megalith

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Digital video services are missing out on significant revenue because some people are too cheap to get their own account: polls claim that 21 percent of streaming viewers ages 18 to 24 access at least one digital video service (e.g., Netflix, HBO Now, Hulu) by using log-in credentials from someone outside their household at some time. Overall, 12 percent of adults said they did the same thing. It is estimated that streaming providers will lose $550 million in 2019 from password sharing, so a crackdown could be on the way.

Up to now, Netflix and other streaming networks have accepted some password-sharing, but they may face pressure from investors to change course if new sign-ups slow substantially, Wall Street analysts said. Revenue growth at Netflix is projected to drop from 31 percent in this year's second quarter to 19 percent in the second quarter of next year, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. "If Netflix goes from a 30 percent revenue growth story to a 10 percent story, there is absolutely going to be more focus on their leaving money on the table," said Justin Patterson, an analyst with Raymond James.
 
WTF are they going to do to enforce this? Ask for like 2-stage email confirmation/authentication each time you stream to a device? No matter how they do this they're gonna wind up looking like Metallica after Napster.

They already supposedly limit streams on most accounts to, what, 1 or 2 with a max of 4 streams? So they are already preventing one account from feeding 100 people at the same time.
 
Anyway, I suppose sharing is with person that in the first place wouldn't/couldn't pay for it... (Example: My sister...)
it's like saying pirate are stealing money from big studios... it's stretched at best...
 
"at some time" is very vague support for a claim of hundreds of millions lost. If there were 21% using passwords from outside their household 2 times per week or more, that would be one thing. But "at some time" could have been people just testing to see if the service would work on their TV or something. More than "investors might put pressure to stop this," it seems that the researchers want to create artificial pressure to make their study relevant.
 
Really the way that I see it is that people have been social creatures since the beginning of time. They worked together in communities to hunt, farm, eat, meet their mate, etc. To suggest that humans are suddenly going to reverse thousands of years of evolution to become hermits that no longer share their goods is really stupid. File sharing didn't get popular because someone wanted something for nothing. File sharing got popular because it was fun to find a concert recording of your favorite artist on some random person's PC. Then have the ability to ask them what other music do they have that is similar and download it also. Then the realization sets in that you're sharing a common love of music with people thousands of miles away that you've never seen before. That made you want to do it again and again because making friends is awesome and humans thrive off social interactions.

Corporations just need to embrace the fact that they are selling their product to social creatures and go with the flow. As long as someone is paying you then it's fine for your customers to share. The only time I would step in would be if the same account showed up in many different IP addresses. Even then the full extent of the inquiry would be to tell them to be mindful of the rules and if they are a traveling salesman or whatever don't worry. Thank you for being a customer and we appreciate you.
 
Implement forced password expirations every month. That would cut down on some of it out of hassle for the Sharing customers
 
haha ^

AND I USE A SHARED PASSWORD

honestly i get the point but................. youre going to gain what, maybe 25% out of that ~20% as new subs?

really not worth the hassle for companies imho.

but....corporate...corporate...corporate...
 
So....... Sharing with a 2nd guest on your couch is piracy.

Bugger off investors, Netflix is ubiquitous partly because of sharing.

There are people who would restrictions sharing even if there was no revenue to gain.
 
Let's not forget about those people who have a DVD collection and lend a movie to friends. There is a lost sale! Better yet, they bought the DVD and can watch it multiple times, even more lost sales!!!

There was an article about the Kinect and Pay-Per-View saying it can scan and see how many people are in the room for per viewing fees... they will squeeze a rock for every drop of blood they can get.
 
Same argument as piracy.
Most the people who are sharing passwords would never pay for their own subscription, so there is no lost revenue.
 
The secretary where I used to work shared a DirecTV subscription with her sister, they both had satellite dishes they had 2 receivers, just didn't live at the same house. Not sure if they found a way to circumvent that anymore though, need to have a physical connection to the main box maybe?
 
I pay for a Netflix account and have since they first started and only sent out DVD's. I have always lent out my password to a few family members who are cord cutters. They use it way more than I would ever use it. I might watch a couple movies but I do watch their original content. House of Cards, OITNB, F is for Family, etc. But I can only watch them when the season starts. the rest of the year my family members use it. The way I see it, with people using my Netflix daily, I am getting my monies worth out of the subscription.

The same goes with my Amazon Prime Video service. I never use it but I keep prime for the shipping deals it gets me. Same family members use that all the time too.
 
We need to keep in mind that if they were to enforce something that would prevent this, they may lose more customers then they would gain... it's worth considering the bad publicity too..
I would cancel my sub if I couldn't share with my sister as I'm basically paying NETFLIX and Spotify for her...
 
Lots of good points in this thread. To be honest I started out sharing netflix for 18months with a friend who paid for it to see what it was all about. I ended up cutting cable and getting my own account so it actually helped them get more more.
 
Meh.
If Netflix really wanted to nickel and dime their customers they would force a single stream, drop multiple viewer profiles and start charging for each additional profile. Oh and start injecting advertising on a cheaper tier.

Hulu added separate user profiles back in December, even though they only allow 1 stream at a time.
 
It's a huge problem. I once asked a question about the disc service on a different message board, and I had someone PM me proposing to pay up to $5/month for my streaming service password. :banghead:
 
This would fall under expected losses. You start getting strict with people and they will leave, losing more than the "customers" that were never there. Restrictions should be done in reason. Yes I own my own account, and no one uses it outside my household, but at the same time... If they limit my family usage in order to combat non paying "customers," I will leave. They find a way and it doesn't effect my circle in anyway, more power to them.
 
Why would you leave if they limited sharing to the same household? That doesn't make any sense. Most people are sharing because it's convenient with some portion of people actually selling the account to split costs/make money. The people sharing because it's convenient would simply not do it anymore unless they've got some ideologically driven need to do what exactly? stick it to netflix? doesn't make much sense.

When my wife and I go out to restaurants I like to get a coke and she doesn't. Sometimes she wants some sips, though. I don't like to pay $3 bucks for that coke and I damn sure won't pay $6 for two so yeah we share. But if the waitress came over and told me all you can drink soda is for one customer only and not the whole family I certainly wouldn't act like an entitled shitbag and get up and leave I would just pay for the second soda or drink a water.
 
SecretStash said:
So....... Sharing with a 2nd guest on your couch is piracy.

Bugger off investors, Netflix is ubiquitous partly because of sharing.

There are people who would restrictions sharing even if there was no revenue to gain.
Click to expand...
So much for Netflix and chill then:(
 
mope54 said:
Why would you leave if they limited sharing to the same household? That doesn't make any sense. Most people are sharing because it's convenient with some portion of people actually selling the account to split costs/make money. The people sharing because it's convenient would simply not do it anymore unless they've got some ideologically driven need to do what exactly? stick it to netflix? doesn't make much sense.

When my wife and I go out to restaurants I like to get a coke and she doesn't. Sometimes she wants some sips, though. I don't like to pay $3 bucks for that coke and I damn sure won't pay $6 for two so yeah we share. But if the waitress came over and told me all you can drink soda is for one customer only and not the whole family I certainly wouldn't act like an entitled shitbag and get up and leave I would just pay for the second soda or drink a water.
Click to expand...

Well how do you enforce such ? and as for your comparison, you do not pay a monthly fee to go to restaurant...
I bet you would not leave but nor would you come back the next weekend :)

People wouldn't leave because they want to stick to netflix, they would leave because they do not see the point to pay X for themselves and not been able to share with their family. (fyi my sister doesn't live in my apartment so the same household rule would kill it for me, it's probably already in place but.. oh well...)

What I could see if a monthly sub of let's say 15$/mo + 2~3 per added streaming to a maximum of xyz. Other than that... the above proposal of monthly PW reset seems reasonable to me !
 
This is the epitome of corporate greed talking. Even netflix doesn't care of they would limit their service to 1 stream per login. Stories and people who think like this are the reason big companies try to squeeze the life out of literally everything to gain that extra penny.
 
Archaea said:
Implement forced password expirations every month. That would cut down on some of it out of hassle for the Sharing customers
Click to expand...

Came here to say this... if Joe Bob had to call his brother every 30 days and get the new password, eventually one of them will get tired of asking or telling. If they wanted to be dicks they could roll out an annoying set of "security" features, that made it a pain in the ass for the actual account holder to stream if cousin joe bob was streaming in the next state under an account that's not his.

Netflix themselves don't seem to concerned, if it became a true problem it's very easy to limit the number of simultaneous streams, especially if they are noticing them from different geographic areas/IP addresses. I'd have no problem with the clamping down on those that blatantly take advantage of the system, if one account has 10 simultaneous users in 10 parts of the country streaming, yeah... that's a shit move on the customers part.
 
collegeboy69us said:
Came here to say this... if Joe Bob had to call his brother every 30 days and get the new password, eventually one of them will get tired of asking or telling. .
Click to expand...

Joe Bob text: Hey bro what's the password
Joe Bob Brother text: mybrotherisaleech all in lower case, enjoy

I think you underestimate how easy it is to ask things
 
easy yes -- but if you knew he'd text you every single month for the password because he's a cheap ass, that pressure to tell him to fuck off slow builds to hopefully the beautiful conclusion of Joe Bob getting told to fuck off and cough up the measly $9... cheaper than a pack of smokes in some states.
 
How are they losing anything when they limit device connections and those connections are monetized?
 
hmmm doesn't this sound exactly like the movie and gaming industries bullshit excuse they've used for the last 15 years about pirating? oh wait that's right it is, all they did was change the words movie and game with password sharing.. funny thing is netflix has never made a single attempt to stop it even though all these people that have nothing to do with netflix keep saying they're "bleeding money" hmmm i wonder why that is, oh right they don't care (article was linked by some one else already).

Archaea said:
Implement forced password expirations every month. That would cut down on some of it out of hassle for the Sharing customers
Click to expand...


all that would do is cause them to lose subscribers including myself, i refuse to deal with that bullshit from a product i'm paying for.
 
I don't know if forced password resets are the answer, but maybe forced even or odd month device re-authorizations would work. The main account holder could just open the netflix app on their phone, check all the devices that need access, tap "ok" and they're good for another 60 days.
 
Yea ugh... got kids? Multiples? Now imagine each month each one complaining its not working, times the number of devices, etc. Yea, fk that.
 
duronboy said:
I don't know if forced password resets are the answer, but maybe forced even or odd month device re-authorizations would work. The main account holder could just open the netflix app on their phone, check all the devices that need access, tap "ok" and they're good for another 60 days.
Click to expand...

No thanks, I do not need a required app on my phone to use Netflix on my computers, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
 
ManofGod said:
No thanks, I do not need a required app on my phone to use Netflix on my computers, Xbox One and Xbox 360.
Click to expand...
Then use your computer. Or xbox. Or anything with a browser. So this method would mean there's two passwords: Admin and user. Admin log-ins would require additional info that one wouldn't be comfortable sharing with someone online.
 
Netflix is literally already accounting for this, that's why they have user profiles on a single account. This is just sensational bullshit akin to $x millions lost to piracy.
 
I cancelled cable a few months back. The bill was ridiculous. They charge for every box plus 100+ dollars for the service. I now have Amazon fire boxes and sticks with DirectTv Now on them. It alot cheaper and seems to be working great. They have added local station now also....but I use one account for 4 TVs. Im not about to pay for 4 accounts as that would cost more than cable. Its all in my house so whats the big deal, I only mention this because direct tv was also stated along with netflix and hulu.
 
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