The estimate is based on a survey asking consumers who share the account of a person they don’t live with how they would respond if Netflix required them to pay $3 a month to keep sharing, and factors in people who would pay more to start their own new accounts. and Canada, where there are about 30 million sharers. estimate that Netflix’s effort could generate an additional $721 million in revenue next year in the U.S. Other streaming rivals face losses as well, and over time, the pressure to make money and keep growing could push services like Disney+, HBO Max and Paramount+ to take a hard look at password sharing as well.Īnalysts at Cowen Inc. Ultimately, the company decided against that tactic, in part because product executives were concerned it would take away from the simplicity of the service, the people said.Īs the leader in the streaming-video business, with 223 million global subscribers and a market cap of about $128 billion, Netflix is the first in the industry to confront password-sharing, but likely won’t be the last, investors and media executives say. Netflix considered allowing users to rent pay-per-view content through their subscriptions, as Amazon Prime Video customers can, because it could make users wary of sharing their login information with others who might run up their bills, people familiar with internal discussions said. Netflix has always billed itself as the alternative to cable providers that tethered viewers to cable boxes and contracts.

Some product executives warned against making the service too complex and not consumer friendly, a practice a few of them referred to internally as Comcastification, a dig at the cable giant, according to people familiar with the situation. To mitigate consumer backlash, Netflix has discussed dialing up the pressure on password sharing gradually, according to people familiar with the situation. The company has said it would enforce its rules based on IP addresses, device IDs and account activity. Netflix has updated its customer help pages this year to say accounts are only to be shared by people who live together. Should kids going off to college be allowed to share their parents’ password? And what happens when users have a second home or travel a lot?

Drawing a hard line on who should be allowed to share passwords has proved tricky.

Netflix’s terms of service have long said that the person who pays for the account should keep control of the devices that use it and not share passwords, but the company never enforced the rule strictly. A $6.99-a-month ad-supported tier launched in November, aiming to capture new users looking for a discount to more expensive ad-free plans. Netflix has also switched gears on showing ads in content after years of resisting it.

Free accounts netflix 2021