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Why a Password-Sharing Crackdown Won’t Help Netflix Much

randycupertino 4y ago
I see this backfiring in their face. I doubt the people who aren't paying for Netflix will respond to them cracking down on password sharing by opting to pay for their own Netflix.
polalavik 4y ago
I’m confused why Netflix has spent months and months essentially threatening their customers instead of quietly implementing the changes they need and then quietly rolling them out. I read someone else comment one time that Netflix is one of those services that’s best when the customer doesn’t think about it too much. So why tell the customer over and over again that they are going to “crackdown”?
goncaloo 4y ago
This is the beginning of the end for streaming services. It was good while it lasted.
- ipspam 4y ago
  Was it? Serious question. I just skip the platform based stuff and still do torrents and release groups. Cross platform freedom. It's been gravy for a dozen years, and will continue to be. Perhaps all the money you gave them to make unpopular indoctrination themed shows inadvertently led to their downfall? The only money video gets out of me is at the theatre, and I'm ok with that. I only have to support the stuff that looks good. I can choose to NOT give my money to garbage.
  - digisign 4y ago
    What are release groups?
    - ipspam 4y ago
      It's a distributed hierarchy with rules. Every release group is a cell competing against every other release group. It's like the Mafia, you get respect for breaking releases. Then the releases trickle down to the usenets and private and public torent trackers. Some sights have rules to encourage speediness, like that only the first 1 or 2 releases per format/quality are allowed to be uploaded. Nobody cares about second fastest. It's about getting shit out, and out fast. The rules are designed to do that.
ThrowITout4321 4y ago
Password sharing is similar to pirating content. People that do it do it because it's free but are very unlikely to pay for it. The idea that netflix will turn those people into customers is wishful thinking. What will happen is that most of those people will start to pirate the content or will not bother with it at all. Even if by some chance they will pay for it they will subscribe for a month, watch what they want and close the account. Their best bet to increase revenue is to add ads and lower costs to a point where it's a no brainer to keep the account active. Eventually they will need to sell the service by chunks. Where the user get's a discount if they subscribe for a year. They will need to mirror the wireless industry's method of earning profits. The easy earnings for Netflix are over.

I see this backfiring in their face. I doubt the people who aren't paying for Netflix will respond to them cracking down on password sharing by opting to pay for their own Netflix.

polalavik 4y ago

I’m confused why Netflix has spent months and months essentially threatening their customers instead of quietly implementing the changes they need and then quietly rolling them out. I read someone else comment one time that Netflix is one of those services that’s best when the customer doesn’t think about it too much. So why tell the customer over and over again that they are going to “crackdown”?

goncaloo 4y ago

This is the beginning of the end for streaming services. It was good while it lasted.

ipspam 4y ago
Was it? Serious question. I just skip the platform based stuff and still do torrents and release groups. Cross platform freedom. It's been gravy for a dozen years, and will continue to be. Perhaps all the money you gave them to make unpopular indoctrination themed shows inadvertently led to their downfall? The only money video gets out of me is at the theatre, and I'm ok with that. I only have to support the stuff that looks good. I can choose to NOT give my money to garbage.
- digisign 4y ago
  What are release groups?
  - ipspam 4y ago
    It's a distributed hierarchy with rules. Every release group is a cell competing against every other release group. It's like the Mafia, you get respect for breaking releases. Then the releases trickle down to the usenets and private and public torent trackers. Some sights have rules to encourage speediness, like that only the first 1 or 2 releases per format/quality are allowed to be uploaded. Nobody cares about second fastest. It's about getting shit out, and out fast. The rules are designed to do that.

ThrowITout4321 4y ago

Password sharing is similar to pirating content. People that do it do it because it's free but are very unlikely to pay for it. The idea that netflix will turn those people into customers is wishful thinking. What will happen is that most of those people will start to pirate the content or will not bother with it at all. Even if by some chance they will pay for it they will subscribe for a month, watch what they want and close the account. Their best bet to increase revenue is to add ads and lower costs to a point where it's a no brainer to keep the account active. Eventually they will need to sell the service by chunks. Where the user get's a discount if they subscribe for a year. They will need to mirror the wireless industry's method of earning profits. The easy earnings for Netflix are over.