withersailorNetflix sees jump in subs as it begins to curb password sharing in US, says report
So much for the great exodus that was predicted.
setsneedtofeedSavvy tech users consistently underestimate how much hostile corporate behavior the general population is willing to put up with.
I thought that Netflix would be caught out by the number of people turning to piracy, but I guess there’s also a lot of older people who have to setup their own account now that they can’t use a relative’s. Or just get the add on for the relative’s existing sub.
I cancelled my Netflix subscription, but it looks like I might need to set one up for my mum and my nan instead :/
Older people are an obvious demographic that won’t jump ship, but don’t turn a blind eye to the younger generation. It isn’t boomers who throw $70+ at video games on a constant basis. The threshold for a convenience/value ratio seems very low for a lot of people.
That’s true about young people tolerating it.
I’ve got a Sonarr/Plex setup that works really well for me, but it was a pain to get it all set up initially and I think even computer literate people would struggle.
ag_roberston_authorYou're absolutely right.
I built my own computer, been using PCs since I was two years old, I know how to use CLIs and I already run Plex. But Sonarr was such a fucking hassle to set it up that I got halfway through the set up and gave up.
How do those things work? When I first saw them come in to existence I was under the impression they were just front ends for navigating and playing media in your personal library and storage, like windows media centre used to be, but they seem to be something altogether a lot more capable and complicated. Where does the content come from? Is it streamed?
The content is either ripped from Blu-ray/dvd or (most commonly) just pirated. Sonarr is an “automated” pirating software. You hook it up with a couple of popular torrent trackers, and configure TV shows you want to track/watch. It queried TVDB and other IMDb like services as well as torrent trackers to automatically detect when a new episode was released and auto-download it.
Plex is the media organizer/player after you’ve “acquired” your media.
ScrubblesBut then I couldn't watch Netflix!!
When was the last time you actually did watch Netflix, and even then how often have you watched it?
.....but I need to watch Netflix
Soo…what about reddit?
We wait and see. My guess is the company looked at the number of 3rd party users verse official client and desktop users and decided: "Yep, we can lose them". It will all depend on how much of a dive the site takes. Similar to all the leave campaigns on FB, Twitter, Digg, etc.. it won't shutdown by this protest.
I look at it that the best users will be the ones to leave.
peef ಠ_ಠIMO lurkers that just browse Reddit just for getting answers to something they were searching on Google will obviously continue using the app. For them this won’t matter, and they constitute the majority of the Reddit user-base.
I guess most of the Third Party App users are somewhat tech savvy and understand that their official app is a total piece of shit. But as you said, Reddit is okay with losing these somewhat small amount of users.
In Brazil too sadly
Makes sense. Everyone was outraged that they were going to be punished for violating the T&Cs, if just because Netflix never really enforced it, but they’re not actually willing to go without.
The general consumer is an idiot. It’s basic psychology. Rewarding behavior increases it’s likelihood. Soon other streaming services will follow.
em2Which is too bad. I never went back and never plan to.
psudoYeah, soon is probably putting it mildly, especially with the news that it only helped Netflix.
I have a tendency to think this way when I see this kind of disappointing news, but I think it's a good idea to resist the temptation. Assuming everyone that chooses this particular streaming service is an idiot because of something that for me is an issue but for them either doesn't matter or more likely still, isn't even on their radar, well I guess it just helps reinforce a distorted world view that assumes everyone is or should be like me and the people I talk to online.
Still though, I was definitely hoping this would bite them in the arse and it's a shame to see them come out of this smelling like roses somehow.
UrLogicFailsWhile I don't watch enough Netflix that this decision will affect me directly, this is awful news, because now I expect more streaming services to see this as a viable option and it will likely be repeated.
It's a little buried in the account settings, but Netflix does allow account sharing for an additional fee (~$7?). I know families that went with this option so they could continue sharing their account with elderly parents, and college aged children.
I imagine that if a group of friends agreed to split the cost of an account + fees, they would end up paying less than having individual accounts.
pootedesuWasn't it more like $3?
Depends on where you live!
Ahh ok. I still get mine through T-mobile so I have no idea how much I pay they just roll it into my bill.
Sad. This just rewards the behavior
I actually had no issues with Netflix enforcing their ToS but people can of course cancel their subscriptions if they want. I have no issues with paying for a good service.
Vendetta9076What makes netflix a good service in your opinion?
Personally I enjoy that they have a lot of Star Trek and anime, they also revived some really good shows like Manifest.
ᗪᗩᗰᑎThe problem I had was I was basically paying so my parents could use it - and they are mostly using my other sibling's HBO account. I barely watch TV and would only really put it on to have something to fall asleep to, so at least in my case, they've lost minimal my account's minimal usage + whatever I was paying them.
I understand and that's your experience of course, you can add non household members for a small fee if needed.
Setup a self hosted VPN service with tailscale on my parents computer. Created an exit node on their computer so I can login to Netflix from "home" once a month. This is all free btw.
Perfect solution. But I also only really watch I Think You Should Leave and Better Call Saul. Torrenting these shows instead will be easy if my hack doesn't work long term.
If youre savy enough to do that, its probably worth it to look into running a servarr stack.
Never heard of it, but I will take a look.
Oh ok, so this is just a RSS feed essentially for torrenting media content that I want to in the future. I honestly want to do it at some point. Need to get a dedicated Linux machine.
At its core, yeah. The most popular ones are sonarr(tv) and radarr(movies) then a media frontend like plex/jellyfin/emby. But theres plenty of other *arr programs depending on your needs. If you ever need any help, Im trying to get the servarr community going on here or you could dm me.
I'll join the community for sure. I have ok experience with Linux as a DevOps engineer. I only have a Linux laptop for work though. Would need to get something else going for it.
My first homelab running servarr was just an old optiplex I bought off ebay. Now its been moved to an old gaming pc lol. I run it for my household and about 5 other friends and haven't seen much in the way of performance issues that can't be explained/mitigated. So you certainly don't need a ton of power. Mainly just storage.
What do you do for remote access for your friends?
I use overseerr for TV/movie requests since I can stand it up behind a reverse proxy easily and Its a much nicer interface. For content I use Plex/Jellyfin. Users decide which they like to use.
Canceled the service myself when they annouced this. Whats the point of a 4 screen subscription in a 2 person household. Would downgrade but video quality and screens are linked. Either way the content on Netflix has been going downhill IMO so it was just another nail in the coffin for me
SilvallyI was sharing an account with a family member. This family member cancelled their subscription following this change.
I don't feel as though Netflix is worth the cost and I've felt no need to buy my own subscription following losing access to Netflix. I think there are too many streaming services and the actual worthwhile content is just spread too thin between them. I'd rather just miss out and watch something else than pay for any of these subscription streaming services.
The sad reality most of us who comment on social media and forums forget is we are just a vocal minority, majority of consumers don't care for these outrages unfortunately. If the end product works good enough for most people then they will keep it/use it.
Yep, already seeing in the family, people having to pay for their own sub now that netflix is cracking on password sharing
They knew they'd face backlash with this decision, but the average person just want to turn on the TV and watch something, so they'd keep paying for that instead of suddenly learning how to pirate things, or move on to other streaming services
It's a short term measure. Long term is: will it have enough exclusive content that makes it worth it?
I only consume content the way God intended : Torrent
pimeysAbsolutely the best way of consuming content, if you have access to the better trackers.
nhgeekI'm skeptical. If this is indeed true, I believe it will be short lived. The simple reason is that the content is not worth the cost. It worked better when people shared their passwords maybe? I gave up my subscription long before they announced these changes because the content, IMO, mostly sucks.
ManticoreYeah, not surprising tbh. They tested the change in smaller countries like NZ first, which allowed them to determine if it was worth doing the same elsewhere.
Password sharing is really common, but I don't think enough people realise - if they give a shit about what they use and where it comes from, they're the minority. That goes for almost any service, not just streaming. The people willing to change their habits to protest are always going to be less than the entrenched people who can be pushed, inch by inch.
Most Netflix users just want something to watch with minimal effort and without having to try or think about it. So if the password doesn't work, they shrug, they accept it, they make their own account, and their routines stay the same. In fact I'm willing to be that of the new Netflix users, a majority of them are probably also subscribed to at least one other streaming service, too.
Convenience is a commodity, and users have different price points.
I only use Netflix currently, as it comes with my phone plan. The convenience factor is nice, but I find the content library a bit lacking. I must explore Plex at some point.
termusPlex live tv is free and has a few good channels too. I watch that 24/7 Modern Marvels channel all the time while I work from home.
GrizzzlayMy family is paying nearly $30/month for Netflix now, on top of paying for cable TV, Max, and Amazon. I currently pay for Hulu and Disney+ and share it with the family, but I really hope password crackdowns are not the norm.
If they are, I'm gonna have a good talk with them about other options. Just throwing money away because "Well what if I want to watch something on that platform one night and I don't have it" is precisely how these vampires want people to feel - the fear of lack of access.
AkasazhIf you don't vote with your wallet on the Netflix one, crackdowns will become the norm
Agreed. The Netflix one is out of my control as I don't pay for it. So this discussion may be inevitable.
skyI'm about to the point where I'm just going to go back to pirating. The value of streaming services was in their convenience. I was willing to pay money for that, but the more fragmented and complicated all of it gets, when I can just pay for 1 VPN and go to a site and click a few links...
Piracy can be pretty convenient too. There are some services that are a kind of a hassle to set up, but work really well once everything is configured. You can have one docker container running qbittorrent and set up so it's only able to access the Internet through VPN, other containers running sonarr/radarr etc to automate the downloading, and one runing plex to organize and stream all the content.
I subscribe to several streaming services because the people who work on and create this content deserve to be paid, but often will watch something on my plex server rather than through the streaming site because it's just more convenient. Also it's nice to have local copies of that media in case it ever gets removed from the streamer in the future.
That's what I've got too. Family and friends are slowly catching on the more I talk about it haha. Got a few friends and my whole family on my Plex server now. It's a fun side project/hobby too imo
ffmikeBear in mind that Antenna (the source of this info) has no access to internal Netflix metrics, only to opt-in consumer information. We won't really know what's going on with Netflix's numbers until their next quarterly report.
I wouldn't be surprised if the kind of person who voluntarily participates in opt-in surveys like this has a different likelihood to get their own account in a situation like the Netflix password sharing crack-down.
big_bangushardly use Netflix, will of a movie we wanna watch is available on it (rare) and it's my parents' anyways so we're gonna get locked out sooner or later. Glad I just decided to build a NAS to make the whole torrenting > media server pipeline easier and with plenty of space
ArtZuronI'm honestly sort of suspicious of this report. I wouldn't be surprised if the information is misrepresented or outright fabricated.
I am not really that surprised. I think a lot of people use netflix and just didn't get a sub, because why pay for something that is free. I think a lot of people used the same account then grew up, moved out, moved on and just kept using the same account. Now that they cannot, they are happy to pay for it. My wife and I have not been kicked off my parents account yet. I do not know how long it takes to kick in. But, once we do, we may subscribe again, but it is not a rush as we are watching a lot of disney plus at the moment.
Of course, I did figure that at least some folks would get their own, but the growth is much higher than I was expecting. It's also a death knell of sorts that will start a feeding frenzy for other streaming services I think though. In a few years, it may not be an option for ANY service to share passwords.
EponymousBoshYeah, someone on Tumblr has pointed out that the data does not actually support the headline here. The spike actually started just before the crackdown and immediately dropped.
