r/technology Feb 03 '23

Netflix says strict new password sharing rules were posted in error Business

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/03/netflix-says-strict-new-password-sharing-rules-were-posted-in-error
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156

u/neverwhisper Feb 03 '23 edited Feb 03 '23

I'd be curious to know the cancelation numbers. I canceled mine yesterday.

67

u/Fealieu Feb 04 '23

I cancelled mine today and said it was because of the password sharing rule and the fact that they cancel shows after one season too much.

51

u/DrProfessorSatan Feb 04 '23

I bet it’s ugly.

13

u/PauI_MuadDib Feb 04 '23

Too bad the juicy stuff is never publicly released unless it's a disgruntled employee leaking info.

2

u/LSD4Monkey Feb 04 '23

there is no way it is not ugly, I too am curious as the number of cancellations of late. would love to see these numbers

13

u/redacted-user-01 Feb 04 '23

I did too lol

3

u/gored_matador Feb 04 '23

I had been a Netflix subscriber since 2009 and cancelled my account yesterday. When the cancellation form asked why, I made it clear that the password sharing policy was the reason.

2

u/Xane256 Feb 04 '23

Just to clarify, what is driving so many cancellations? I get that:

  1. Account owners will feel screwed over because its a blatant money grab
  2. But I expect many (most?) people would keep subscriptions just for themselves / their own households.
  3. At the same time, a hugely under-estimated number of users wont be able to meet the “home wifi once a month” requirements for entirely reasonable reasons

What other factors are there?

3

u/Chaseapher Feb 04 '23

We’ve been a customer for 12 years and if they went through with this I’d cancel. For us our $22 four device at a time plan would turn into $88 for the same thing if we stayed. My house, my brothers, my dads, and my vacation home/Airbnb.

That aside, I travel for work a decent amount and I have 3-4 overnights a month. So for me to have to deal with anything beyond opening up the app on my iPad or laptop and press play will push me to cancel. Same goes with flying.

Being a pirate long ago meant rough seas. But today it seems all too easy to sail. Netflix fails to realize that. On top of that there are too many paid options as competition. Netflix needs to touch grass.

1

u/rs_alli Feb 04 '23

Just to give some examples from my own household, none of my siblings live with my parents but my dad pays for 4 screens so we can all share Netflix. One of the main reasons he’s never cancelled is because if he’s able to provide it for all of us at $22 it’s an expense that makes sense. If he can’t share it with all of us, suddenly the expense doesn’t make sense. He also exclusively watches content we recommend to him. If we aren’t watching Netflix anymore, he won’t be watching either.

In addition to that, my step mom is a travel nurse. She does 3-6 month contracts. So with this password issue, she would be charged more for a job that is currently hugely necessary in the US. It’s a slap in the face.

My boyfriend currently pays for a Netflix account for his mom but we use my dads at our house (my dads is 4k) so my boyfriends “home network” is most likely his moms account that he pays for. With their new rules, my boyfriend wouldn’t even have access to the account he literally pays for. In addition to that, he is a pilot and watches Netflix on hotel tv’s so he would be inconvenienced by getting a code before every trip to watch. Dumb, and not worth it when we’ve got every other major streaming service as well.

So overall for my family the mentality is the price isn’t worth it. We’re talking about going from 2 Netflix accounts to 5 accounts for all of us. That’s an insane amount and just not worth the expense. We’d probably end up cancelling and then doing a free trial/one month subscription twice a year instead.

1

u/SyChO_X Feb 04 '23

I canceled in December.

Fuck'em!