This seems (to me at least) like it would be an unpopular move. However, I wonder if this is one of those situations where HN is an opinionated echo chamber, and where the average person would be totally okay with this
I'm iffy on calling it theft. Presumably, even with a VPN, they would still have to abide by the simultaneous view limitations. Provided they're accessing the content for the same market they pay for Netflix in. At that point, what is the difference between streaming the video to devices far apart, or sitting in the same room?
You had the subscription, so I assume you experienced value from it.
But you are willing to make a stand and deny yourself that value so other people could share their Netflix. People you don't know.
Thats extremely principled and selfless. I have a hard time believing this. There are way more meaningful ways to help others by denying yourself value.
You didn't cancel Netflix to feed a homeless person but to help someone with too much time and too little money, but no so little they couldnt a roof, a couch, a TV and a internet connection, from wasting their life watching TV.
I will gladly tell you my reasons, but first I'd like to know something: why are you telling me that my decision makes no sense at the same time as asking for my reasons? How do you know it whether it makes sense without knowing why I do it?
This approach to conversation doesn't make me hopeful you will honestly think about my reasons, since you already decided they don't make sense.
I avoided answering the question due to the reasons I previously stated.
My reasons, in roughly decending order of importance:
- They went back on their earlier promises. I don't like it when companies do this. As a consumer, my best way to affect this is to vote with my wallet.
- Cost of living is already high enough that the additional expense will be too much for those who already can't pay for much. Entertainment is important, especially in times that are getting harder.
- Netflix has been making terrible creative decisions time after time, and I don't feel like giving them more money as-is.
Yes, it does make sense. I made the same decision.
It doesn't have to be a "selfless" decision. I made it for myself. Tell me, what part of streaming video involves them needing to track my location and decide when I am at an acceptable one to do so. The fact that they are gathering and using that information at all is not acceptable to me. I canceled immediately because I won't pay them to do such a thing.
That's my guess. I think a lot of people signed up to finish whatever they were in the middle of watching when they were suddenly cut off. Maybe this will even work out for them in the long term, but in terms of customer growth it's also a trick that only works once. This quarter they can make every person in a family pay for their own accounts, but where do they go after this?
I think they've reached a point where just about everyone who would use netflix has it already, or at least had it for a while and would sign up again if there was something there they wanted to watch. Netflix can improve their library to try to keep folks around a little longer, or entice them back sooner, but then what? Wait for the birth rate to go up? This stunt was either going to cost them subscribers because they pissed people off by changing their policy, or increase their subscribers because some of the people who "had netflix" were using someone else's account and would sign up for their own, and so far it looks like they're coming out ahead, but we'll see how long that holds.
My concern is that netflix is going to get worse and worse once they stop finding ways to inflate their subscriber numbers, because the only people they'll be able to squeeze more money out of at that point will be the people already signed up. Maybe it'll mean more ads (and their ad-free plans already have an annoying number of ads now!) or maybe they'll sell off our data, or jack prices way up, who knows, but I doubt we'll like it.
Netflix adding targeted ads and changing their policy on passwords makes me think that the "enshittification" of Netflix is well underway. They're already notorious for ignoring what their customers want. For example, it took them four years to give users an option to disable autoplay while browsing, and they've ignored people asking for a simple A-Z list of every available title since day one of their streaming service. Netflix was the outsider at a time when we were held hostage by Cable TV providers. Netflix got people to cut the cord. Nobody wants Netflix to suck or to fail, but there's also nothing we can do to keep it from getting worse as netflix grows greedier.
Don’t think it was unpopular. People have complained a lot, sure, but I had 3 people I let use mine and went it stopped working all of them said “damn okay” and subscribed themselves.
Netflix had the numbers of how much an account was shared then they tried blocking password sharing in smaller markets they felt it would help them get more subscribers so they did. This was not something out of the blue they have been testing this for a while. They even introduced a cheaper with ads tier to get subscriber that were not willing to pay $10 and above a month.
I think it was a pretty small and colocated group of a similar demographic saying "as soon as they do that, I'm quitting".
I'm sure most people just saw they were locked out, realized things changed, and signed up.
If I was a Netflix subscriber, I'd be much more concerned about dearth of content than being able to share my password or watch in a hotel. What is there to watch when you're in a hotel? Nothing. Garbage.
Is it known how many of those new subscriptions were made only to take advantage of the free trial?
For the record, l will be cancelling my account as soon as I'm not allowed to share my password. I pay for it, I can share it with whoever I want. It's on Netflix to make people want to sign up, not force them.
Looks like the initial results confirm Netflix's view on the market.
Just reaffirms that public outcries should always be paired with reliable data.
They knew what they were doing, tested it out in several markets and prepared cheaper offers before.
I say well done Netflix even though I'm going to be sad to leave since for me as someone living alone it doesn't make sense anymore given my backlog of steam games and personal projects.
I'm on Reddit a bit too much for my taste, but literally everyone thought they'd be bankrupt/dead within a year.
Watching that spectacle today, I had this weird gross feeling like I was at a party, but looked around and it was actually just a seedy drug house and I was hanging out with a weird crowd.
Their cashflow is immense, they would have survived. Saying that I never bought it either. I bought shares in the other FAANGS after the crash, but not this one. I just thought too much competition and the covid bubble had burst. But clearly its the top streaming service and if anyone is going to survive the coming shakeout its going to be them because of their technology, experience and established user base.
I used to sail as a teen, but now the increased effort of pick something out> find + download the torrent> stop the seeding> cast to screen is too much for me to bother anymore.
Do you sometimes think how the world would work if everyone acted like you? I just don’t think there would be much video worth being watched if everyone stole videos.
Valid question, but ever thought how the production studios got paid before (and still) Netflix existed? Exactly, cinemas, local TV station buying the movies/show while adding some commercials, etc., they will find a way it isn’t yours to worry about, in fact, I think that way it’s better for two reasons:
- Might bring back the quality of movies/TV as it was in 80s/90s, as these movies/Shows sold in cinema/to TV must maintain some quality and put some efforts to get back some revenue, if it was a low quality, they are out of business, only the good survived, natural selection at its finest.
- It might also help to maintain some level of decency without the pile of degeneracy nowadays, as it’s easier to watch that by yourself, it isn’t at the cinema with your family/friends or local TV.
Right now, most of the garbage movies/TV shows are funded by Netflix, and who’s funding Netflix? You. So you are indirectly responsible for the low quality of current movies, and torrenting them might kill that skewed business model and save the huma.. ok not that dramatic to save humanity, but might actually do something good.
I would posit that there isn't much video worth being watched in the world's current state.
Without going down a subjectivity rabbit hole, the amount of filler content on streaming services is astounding. Finding something great is like sifting through the sand in a desert to find a tiny diamond. The juice just ain't worth the squeeze.
Netflix has 74.4 million subscribers in the US and Canada. In q1, they added net 100k subscribers or about 1100/day. With some algebra, we can deduce that cancellations increased 60% in this time period. However, we can't calculate the net subscription rate in this period without knowing the sign up or cancellation rates.
If we guess that there were twice as many new subscriptions as cancellations (i.e. 1100 cancellations/day, 2200 sign ups/day), the we can estimate the new rates were 4400 sign ups/day and 1760 cancellations/day or 2640 net subscriptions/day, which would be a 140% increase in net subscribers/day.
If we guess 20% more sign ups than cancelations (6600 sign ups, 5500 cancellations), then we can estimate the new rates were 13200 sign ups/day and 8800 cancels/day, or 4400 net subscriptions/day (300% increase).
There is no way this is sustained though. Even in the extreme case that every subscription was shared and causes 1 additional sub, that can at most double subscriptions, and that's not at all likely. If this follows patterns of other similar events like game launches, there will be an exponential decay of some kind back to a mean rate.
I expect a bump at first, but I think this will encourage churning your Netflix so you only subscribe a few months of the year instead of sharing with a group the whole year.
