The unfavorable financial results of the last quarter forced Netflix to become the first streaming platform to launch measures to address the phenomenon of the widespread use of a subscriber's passwords by multiple persons, friends or relatives. But how exactly will this be implemented? CNBC, in its publication, stands by the information regarding the plan that the company has in the works.
According to the company, more than 100 million households share a code, of which 30 million relate to the US and Canadian markets. The goal is not to immediately freeze the sharing of codes, as this could eventually lead to a loss of customers causing irritation to the public. Instead, the prevailing scenario wants the platform to impose a small, extra charge on the above accounts, ie those who use the code outside the declared original home address.
In the first phase, all subscribers will be informed via email, if it is found that their password is used by other individuals / households. From there, an extra charge of up to two extra people will be added. However, the price will not be the same, but will change in each country. Indicatively, the increase will be between $ 2 and $ 3, for example $ 2,13 per month in Peru and $ 2,92 in Chile.
"We do not try to completely stop sharing the codes, but we will ask (the subscribers) to pay a little more so that they can share them, to enjoy the benefits and the value of the service and we respectively receive more revenue from the increased the company's COO, Greg Peters, had commented characteristically.
A Time2Play survey of the United States found that about 80% of Americans who use someone else's password will not buy their own password if they cannot share it.
In any case, analysts believe that the whole process will take time to register, inform customers and formulate the new pricing policy. The company should be careful to ensure that it does not accuse members of a family who, for example, may be living temporarily in another location, of abuse. If mistakes are made, customers may end up losing, instead of adding extra revenue.
The Netflix plan, after all, is not based on any previous experience. No international platform has so far tried to put a brake on code sharing. It is therefore considered certain that all competing platforms will closely monitor the case and will wait to see the results of the project so that they are also ready to adopt similar measures in the future.
in.gr