I was recently watching a dating segment on a TV show (don't judge) and noticed that one of the key questions for each and every potential suitor was: "Do you have your Netflix account?"
“What a strange question”, I thought. Why would that make a difference and why wouldn't these guys have Netflix?
However, as the game progressed, it became clear that only one of each and every adult male had his account. The rest used the identifiers of their parents, ex-girlfriends, friends. It turns out that "having your Netflix account" made one guy more "attractive" than the rest.
I shouldn't have been so surprised that so many adults didn't have their account. About fourteen percent of Netflix users let freeloaders binge on Lupine through their accounts for free.
Ever since Netflix announced it was testing $XNUMX ancillary for those who share their Netflix accounts with people who live outside of their household, I've been thinking about those singles and everyone else who streams at someone else's cost.
Netflix made it clear in an article titled "Pay to Share Netflix Outside Your Home" that resolution comes down to money:
"We've always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multi-streaming on our Standard and Premium plans. While they've been hugely popular, they've also created some confusion as to what's on. refers to when and how Netflix can be shared As a result, accounts are shared between households: affect our ability to invest in new TV shows and movies for our members.
A couple of years ago, Netflix spent almost €12 billion on content. €XNUMX billion was planned to be spent last year. Pendant ce temps, des concurrentes como Amazon Prime Vídeo, Paramount +, HBOMax et en particulier Disney + ont augmenté le nombre d'abonnés et ont peut-être éloigné les téléspectateurs de Netflix vers leur propre variété de personnages et de contenus attractants bases sur la intellectual property. To stay competitive and retain paid (and unpaid) eyes, Netflix is going to spend more on content in XNUMX and up there.
It is also fair to assume that there is a direct profit motive here. Netflix has known, based on IP addresses, that people sometimes living hundreds of miles apart access the same account. It's a huge untapped source of income (the money he needs for Bridgerton three and Stranger Things five).
However, if it passes the test, it's also a defining moment not only for everyone who shares Netflix passwords, but also for other password-based services and content systems that traditionally haven't. relied on location to decide who is and who is not a qualified member. .
Imagine what would happen if Amazon introduced a related supplement. How many people use your Amazon Prime account?
Many of these platforms have already been slowly working on ways to limit the number of times paid accounts can be used. Microsoft, for example, will limit the number of systems that can share an Office365 account. If you forget to remove it from an old computer before you load the software on a new one, Microsoft won't let you and will force you to deactivate the account on the original system.
Adobe's apps and cloud will require you to sign out of, for example, Photoshop on one system before you load it on another.
Netflix already limits the number of people who can watch content simultaneously on one account (two for basic, 4 for premium).
Yet many of us readily share login credentials for Netflix, Hulu, and countless other services with our family and friends, assuming that as long as we don't all use it at the same time and at least one absolutely no one pays, all is well. . penalty fee.
That may soon no longer be the case as companies change their definition of membership. References are not enough. Location (based on IP) can be essential.
It will be a harsh and costly new reality for many, especially singles.