Netflix's crackdown on password-sharing likely boosted subscribers by about 6 million in the third quarter and the streaming pioneer is expected to set the stage for price increases when it reports earnings on Wednesday.
Netflix may hike prices after success of password-sharing crackdown::Netflix's crackdown on password-sharing likely boosted subscribers by about 6 million in the third quarter and the streaming pioneer is expected to set the stage for price increases when it reports earnings on Wednesday.
For real, their content isn't even that compelling of an argument to keep paying for it anymore, especially when we all know that if they did manage to make the first season of a show that ends up being good they'll just not renew it.
Wait, so their excuse for hiking prices before was that they were losing money because people were sharing their accounts, so they "had to" hike the prices for those who subscribed to "compensate" for that. Now that they succeeded in their crackdown on password-sharing, which means more subscribers in theory, they figured that they still need to hike prices again? Someone please show me the logic here?
The logic is there is no other way to increase profits. Netflix has maxed out its subscriber base. They can only ‘grow’ by raising the rent, selling ads, and reducing production costs. They are doing all three. Netflix is not alone. The Great Enshittification is global.
It took a long time for enshittification of cable to make that industry collapse: hopefully this is another case where the internet greatly accelerates that feedback
All my life I saw people (myself included) addicted to passively watching TV and we continued as things got worse and worse. However now they’re breaking the cycle, no more senseless loyalty, no more being a slave to some marketer’s schedule. I have much less interest in dealing with this than I used to, and my kids have never had the same addiction. Do streaming companies know or care that they’re sacrificing their future customer base?
Netflix, if you're paying any attention here, there will be no raising prices to drive me to the ad tier. Either the ad free version is worth it or I'll continue my life without Netflix. I'll never go back to the cable ad experience.
But people really won't. Their library isn't even that complete anymore. If it wasn't for Coco melon and a 2 year old and the very rare family movie id likely just kill it myself even before all this.
It's the sort of model that works untill it doesn't.
And the metric to know how well it works is piracy. Because Netflix don't release numbers for subscription cancellations. The more piracy goes up, the more people can be said to be leaving the paid subscription streaming service.
Piracy, it's a service issue.
After we return back to pre-netflix-heyday piracy levels, all streaming services will slowly be relegated to the same status cable companies occupy today.
Didn't they just raise prices "due to the writers strike"?
if they need to raise rates this much this often they are crap at forecasting and or (more likely) they are just full of shit and are just making up excuses to generate revenue after seeing how many people tolerated the password crackdown.
Do it. I cancelled 2 weeks ago and haven't looked back. Netflix is filled with self referential, formulaic films, shows that had a good season 1 but got axed, and shows that sucked but somehow got the engagement metrics up enough to stick around. Occasionally there's a show that's good and stocks around, but ends up a stinker as the seasons progress.
The only thing I miss is Korean dramas, but there's Viki for that.
I wake our account up for a month or two a year. They don't have enough quality content to justify a nonstop subscription and haven't since the great streaming market fracture like 5-6y ago.
I've been a Netflix subscriber for a long time. The ease of use, the broad catalog of weird foreign films and shows, and the kid-friendly content have kept me on board after ditching Hulu, Disney+, and pretty much every other streaming service. And I have the disposable income to make the convenience worth it, even though I'm fully capable of, shall we say, sailing the high seas.
If they do this, I'm dropping Netflix. It's just not worth it anymore.
Netflix should take the departure of people like me as a canary in the coal mine. If I leave, then other long-term, formerly-happy customers will depart, too. This will be the start of a death spiral.
Broad catelog, but lacking in seeds for older episodes.
Try watching Simpsons S04, E08 as an example.
I can guarantee there will be no active seeds.
It's good for recently released content however, but will never be as good as legit services.
How has HBO been consistently $15 a month for decades it seems, and now suddenly this model requires everyone to hike their prices to hell and back? I think I would be willing to believe that $15/mo is the magic number, except that everyone is rocketing past that now. Now it's just garbage corporations turning a quick buck for executives and shareholders, as subscribers we aren't getting any more for our money - there's no feature release or massive influx of content. What a shit system we have.
You answered your own question "Now it's just garbage corporations turning a quick buck for executives and shareholders" executives must continually find more profit to appease the shareholders, the only way to do that consistently is raise prices, there are too many people that will just keep paying and paying and the corporations know it.
Unfortunately they got rid of port forwarding so it's not great for torrents. AirVPN is the way to go now. It's also only about $3/mo if you do 3 years at a time.
I don't know why, but I'm still able to use my parents' Netflix account. Maybe it's because I turned off automatic updates on my TV before the crackdown started.
So I have to check because I haven't noticed this have, they actually implemented this crackdown for everyone everywhere, because I'm successfully sharing my Netflix password with my parents and nothing seems to have happened yet.
The original plan was to keep going with Netflix until they actually shut down the account because I'm only really maintaining it for my parents, but Netflix have ruined it by not doing anything.
I had forgotten about the crackdown until I wanted to browse through on my parents' account, and it said I had to update the account location if I wanted access. It probably still works fine if you're in the same household.
Urgh. The only people in our house who watch it are the kids for cake based reality shows and Lego animation. So as soon as they raise the prices it's getting cancelled.
I was about to cancel my Netflix when I saw that I’m grandfathered into $10/month for ad-free. The only thing I find worth watching there are K-Dramas these days and that’s roughly the cost of a Viki Rakuten account, so I’ve decided to keep it…for now.
The second anything requires me to change from my current sub, that’s a wrap.
I downgraded from the top tier to that grandfathered one when they announced it was going away. Not holding my breath it'll be immune to price hikes for long. We haven't watched anything on there in months and will definitely cancel if they hike it.
I re-subscribed to Netflix for the first time in about a year and a half a couple of months ago. After watching a few things periodically, I'm already lukewarm on the content. I just got an antenna so I can watch some local things (news, sports, etc.) and I'm not sure I'll bother with Netflix going forward. I see another cancellation looming in my future, and that'll only come faster if they decide to increase the price yet again. Most of the time I already feel like I'd rather be reading a book than watching TV.
I just resubbed for Fall of the House of Usher. I'll watch that and the new Adam Sandler, then will unsub again. I have no problem with paying for things that provide value, but its stupid to keep paying if I'm not going to use it
Oct 16 (Reuters) - Netflix's (NFLX.O) crackdown on password-sharing likely boosted subscribers by about 6 million in the third quarter and the streaming pioneer is expected to set the stage for price increases when it reports earnings on Wednesday.
The only profitable major streamer, Netflix has resisted joining rivals like Walt Disney (DIS.N) in hiking ad-free prices this year and instead curbed password-sharing outside households to tap the more than 100 million viewers who use its service without subscribing.
Five months after calling a strike that plunged Hollywood into turmoil, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) last week approved a new contract with major studios.
After a slow start for the ad plan launched last year, analysts said they expect Netflix will raise prices of its ad-free options in the coming months to nudge more subscribers to the other tier, where commercials help bring in more revenue per user.
"Using these tactics, Netflix will likely double its ad-supported viewership next year," said Insider Intelligence analyst Ross Benes.
Overall, Wall Street expects the streamer to post its strongest quarterly subscriber additions this year, according to LSEG data.
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I subscribe for like one month a year if stuff I like has accumulated. It's not worth more, I bet one moth will soon be $150, or "premium content" will only be available to long term subscribers.