The hot topic of streaming wars is becoming more and more public as Netflix plans to charge freeloaders in the future.
Sharing streaming accounts, such as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney and Hulu, is incredibly common. Recently Netflix published that out of their 222 million accounts as much as a third could be shared in violation of the rules. Just to remind you, the family plan (the most expensive of them all) allows you to share your subscription on 4 screens and have the downloads on the same amount of devices. Those devices should belong to the same family residence and Netflix is planning to enforce this rule somehow, sending subscribers suspicious log-ins outside their residence, city, or even country. If they fail to explain the suspicious activity, presumably, they will have to pay extra for that. Netflix suspects that as many as 100 million accounts are being shared with friends or sometimes unknowingly being used by complete strangers (be it privacy breach or sharing between friends of friends and so on).
They could be not far off that mark. A recent study surveyed more than 1,000 people across the US on the subject of password sharing for their subscription services. A staggering 84 % of Netflix users shared the account with at least one other person. Other platforms had lower numbers (but still over 50 %). Nearly 40 % of account sharers said they won’t remove a person on their account due to wanting to avoid confrontation. And that goes for people who know who they are sharing their accounts with. The study also showed that nearly half of the respondents said someone had shared their password with someone else without their knowledge, while 31 % experienced another person changing their password without their permission. Netflix is the first platform openly saying it will fight illegal account sharing, others are still saying that it’s not a huge issue. This study shows the opposite of that. One thing is for sure. Sooner or later, it will become an issue for every platform, once the subscriber growth will stop. If you don’t know your freeloaders, don’t worry. Your content provider will find them for you!
All images courtesy of TMDB
