Netflix has started a “purge” on the password-sharing trend by cracking down on the non-sunscribers using someone else’s password, The Streamable reported on Wednesday.
The prompt on the screen of some users read, “If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching.” It further asks for verification of the account by giving the option to email/text the code or OTP to the registered cell of the user, or sign-up for a 30-day free trial.
O no. Netflix doing the purge?!? pic.twitter.com/XXlHtfgfsy
— chante most (@DOP3Sweet) March 9, 2021
A Netflix spokesperson told The Streamable, “This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so.” The report added that it wasn’t clear if users in the test needed to share the same IP address to be considered in the same household, or if it was being carried out in some countries.
This comes after the firm’s decision to deal with the menace of password-sharing more aggresively since it is competing with the growing OTT market. As per a Media Partners Asia story published in January, Disney+ Hotstar has emerged as the biggest challenge to Netflix, due to its buying of key sports rights and investments in local originals despite its focus on narrow family-related content.
In 2016 Tech Crunch reported Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings as saying, “We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch. That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.”
The Covid-19 pandemic changed the game in both the availability of online content as well as streaming platforms as regional OTTs entered the race. What was seen as “a positive thing” by Netflix in 2016, now became detrimental to the growth of its paid-subscriber base.
The effort to curb password-sharing began in 2019, with Bloomberg reporting that Netlfix, HBO, and other cable-industry giants were looking into possible methods that would include the owners to regularly change their passwords, or sending one-time-passwords to the registered mobile number of the user.
The streaming giant had not taken a step until now, despite its “terms of use” strictly mentioning against the practice: “The Netflix service and any content viewed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”
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There is also subscription-sharing, wherein, an individual creates an account, known as the “account owner” while others, non-family members, pay or pitch-in to avail the services as a collective. This is practised majorly to access the premium services or plans with the maximum number of screens. However, the platforms’ payment system accepts and ackownledges only individual payment.
Netflix’s plans in India start from the monthly mobile plan of Rs 199 , to monthly plans of Rs 499, Rs 649, and Rs 799; without capping the number of devices that content can be viewed on. According to The Economic Times, its StreamFest initiative to increase its subscriber base in India, added a record 37 million paying subscribers, making its total base standing at over 203 million paid subscribers worldwide.