Netflix’s password sharing ban reaches its main market, the Anglo-Saxon, with the massive rejection of its users. After the problems in markets such as Spain, it now faces its greatest challenge.
Two days ago Netflix announced the expansion of the unpopular plan that prevents the sharing of passwords. It will reach new regions, and its main market, the Anglo-Saxon world: United States, United Kingdom and Australia. Big words. The controversial measure may accelerate a point of no return, which was pioneered, and largest among streaming platforms.
It doesn’t do too much Netflix was consolidated as the reference streaming platform. Its success was based on a clean interface, an algorithm that showed new series that did not end up in the catalog, its logo on the television controls, the absence of ads, and, above all, a cheap price that you could share with friends and family. .
So, shows like The Sopranos, Prison Breakand then, lost, they changed the paradigm and moved fiction from sitcoms to mega-productions. They were seen all over the internet. Netflix ousted traditional television, avoiding its ads; and to the download pagessuch as Megaupload, (along with the FBI) by nullifying their annoying banners, long buffering, and dubious playback quality.
It was a good deal. Low price, you turned a blind eye for sharing the account, you avoided advertising and you had tons of content. In addition, the episodes of the series came out suddenly and there was no competition. Exit.
Without own licenses, mass production of series
In its beginnings, Netflix even dared to make its own mega-productions, such as Marco Polo either Sense8. But, low-cost series like for 13 reasonsthey showed him that his way was to bet massively to find a jewel.
It was a winning bet, when the competition came when the powerful HBO and the dominance of Game of Thrones pointed the way for the series, They contracted locally successful productions in other countries and eventually managed to offer La Casa de Papel or El Juego del Squid, and their own bet with Stranger Things.
The streaming market has changed a lot since then, HBO will soon be relegated to a section within MAX. Fusion considers select and cultured acronyms, and prefers a more general audience.
The last one was Disney+ with all kinds licenses you to produce your own content, and with a clear public segment. Before that, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV appeared, which, even with fewer licenses than Disney+, had the ability to give their users their subscription, a different model from Netflix.
Netflix does not have a series that comes to the rescue today and can compete. She tried it with Arcane, The Witcher, Wednesday or Sandmand, and they kept it afloat, but just take a look at today’s most watched series to see that the competition is poorly balanced with the rest. Your model needs more and more to pull off the sets in one go.
Its catalog decreases in quality, its algorithm no longer fascinates, its prices rise and it has had to resort to advertising. The only thing left from its glory days is the button on the TV remote.
After bringing us the era of streaming, today, Netflix brings us back the old formula of traditional TV or the current DTT, pay more or unlimited ads and it does so with reproaches to the user.
Netflix’s plan to prevent password sharing, wave after wave
The alarming situation, with a big fall in the stock market, a drop in subscribers of 200,000 subscribers last year, the first in its history, has changed the course, suggesting that lLosses have to be covered.
netflix decided raise prices, remove shared accounts and pray for a new jewelin a context of Writers strike in the United States. The platform decides to ban the measure with which it always turned a blind eye, (share your account), the first wave began.
In this pilot test, it saved furniture in several countries, in the second phase the company has revealed that after testing the plan to block password sharing in Latin America, Spain and Canada, it experienced an initial reaction with a wave of massive cancellations.
But after a few weeks, the platform even noticed a rise in subscribers in some areas, not in Spain, which strengthened its income, but its unpopularity has grown, a lot.
According to the BBC, Netflix’s user base in Canada is now bigger than it was before the implementation of the no-password-sharing plan, and the company’s revenue streams were bolstered as a result. In Spain, it lost 1 million subscribers and is struggling to recover them.
However, the story may be different in your main marketsthe Anglo-Saxons and Central Americans, especially at home, the United States, the jewel in the crown.
A great uproar on social networks, discontent among users and massive cancellation requests grow without brake. A thread on the ResetEra forum estimates that this time around 80% of the participants affected by the measure will cancel or have canceled their subscription.
Because, added to prohibiting sharing, the price for sharing has arrived. Netflix revealed that users pThey will be able to share their account with people who do not live with them, as long as they pay an additional monthly fee of $7.99 or £4.99. The same price as a share with ads.
implement a password protection plan is pretty unpopular, but forcing people to pay another fee to let someone else use their account, and for the same amount, has sparked outrage and it may be the last piece that decides fall of no return for Netflix.
