Mooch No More: Netflix's Password-Sharing Crackdown Could Ruin Streaming

pcmag.com:

Have an in-law or know a student who doesn't live with you but wants use your Netflix login to watch Warrior Nun on their big-screen TV? They'll probably be out of luck: Netflix is putting an end to password sharing. Once it hits the accounts of US users, they can no longer access an account from outside the home of the main account holder (unless they're on a mobile device, among other workarounds(Opens in a new window)). The ban is already in place in several other countries.

When a company as big as Netflix makes a change like this, the backlash is quick, even if it's seen only in polling. When Netflix announces a price increase, people say they'll quit the service—yet it has raised its rates almost yearly since 2014. When Netflix says it'll stop renting DVDs, people say they'll quit. (Qwikster, we never knew ye…but you'd be close to dead by now had you launched.)

The polling is, of course, always interesting. This year, CordCutting(Opens in a new window) did a survey of 927 people who use streaming services to see how many were "moochers," logging into another person's account or accounts, and found the number to be 16% for Netflix. Same for Disney+. The percentage is lower for other streaming services.

CordCutting claims that even with that low number of moochers, the cost of password sharing to the industry is around $2.3 billion annually. Thus, the belt-tightening. It's happening at all streaming services—Max is shedding content, Netflix is cutting its spending, and Paramount is experiencing huge losses(Opens in a new window) thanks to the growth of Paramount+ and Pluto TV.

Netflix has no choice but to try to stop the password-sharing revenue killer. The bottom line and the shareholders must be appeased.

CordCutti