What are the Netflix password sharing rules, and why are people so angry

But her home, husband, and Netflix headline are all located thousands of miles away in Midland, Ga.

Andersen is one of many longtime Netflix customers upset about the company’s new crackdown on password sharing, which launched in the US this week and will prevent it from streaming on the road. After years of ignoring and even encouraging password sharing, the streaming company is requiring anyone who has been using a Netflix login for more than 31 days in a different location to get a separate account or pay $7.99 per month to add it to the main account.

Affected Netflix users have taken to social media to complain about the new policy, and some have even threatened to quit or switch to competitors with more lax participation requirements, such as Disney Plus and Max.

“I’m not paying another eight bucks, I’m not,” says Andersen, who plans to scrap her $19.99-per-month premium plan. “I pay a lot as is. I understand the price has to go up over time – it didn’t bother me at all – but to say now I can’t use it myself? That’s crazy.”

Can Netflix Withstand the Backlash?

Netflix did not rush this plan and may have taken it into consideration Some public outrage and some loss of subscribers. The company began testing the app in smaller markets last year and rolled it out in Canada this year. Analysts say a small amount of disruption is expected and possibly temporary.

“There is initial anger in every market,” says Rich Greenfield, media analyst at LightShed Partners. Then they put out a piece of content that people can’t live without, [and] After two months their numbers increased.”

Greenfield says high-quality software and movies are all the company should focus on. “The best way to get people to sign up on their own or as an additional account is with content they literally can’t live without.”

In an April survey, Wedbush Securities asked current and recent Netflix customers what they would do after the campaign. About 40 percent said they don’t plan to make any changes to their subscription, 30 percent said they would join or create a family or group plan, and 15 percent said they would cancel or leave Netflix.

“Screaming wheels seem to be entering the internet to air their grievances. Most of them are just pro-pigs I suppose, and they are exasperated that they have to pay,” said Alicia Reese, equity research analyst at Wedbush.

Not all Netflix customers are bothered by the crackdown. Some were glad the company was going after the “freelancers,” especially if it meant more revenue for their favorite shows or if it meant their monthly fees stopped rising. Netflix said 100 million people around the world stream using borrowed accounts.

“We subscribers get either higher prices or lower services than would be the case if the freelancers were paying the subscription fee,” Diane Averill, of Pittsburgh, said in an email. “And Netflix employees might get better paid if the company was more profitable, so a lot more people are likely to get scammed by cheaters.”

Netflix declined to comment on users’ response.

“This is an important shift for us, and so we’ve been working hard to make sure we’re doing it as well and thoughtfully as possible,” Gregory Peters, Netflix co-CEO and principal, said on the company’s recent earnings call. In countries where the new policy has been implemented, he said, the company tends to see an initial number of cancellations followed by password borrowers signing up for their own accounts and members paying for more people.

Netflix said in April message For contributors in Canada, which it says is “a trusted benchmark for the US, our paid membership base is now larger than it was before paid participation launched and revenue growth is accelerating and is now growing faster than it was in the US.”

What’s next for affected streamers

Some people are in situations where paying more money doesn’t make sense. For example, paying subscribers who split their time between different locations, either for work, because they have a vacation home, or for family reasons.

But many of the people who got notifications are exactly who Netflix is ​​likely to target: sharing parents with college students, adult kids sharing accounts with their older parents and groups of friends splitting the costs of some subscriptions.

Years ago, Ammy Woodbury and her friends got into a premium Netflix account together. She says she realizes the company believes its business model is no longer working, but the change prompted the group to cancel.

“I think we’ll probably sign up for a month or two a year to catch up on Stranger Things and Wednesday and watch some movies. But then we’ll shut it down again,” said Woodbury, 49, who lives in Santa Clara, Calif. On assessing how much I value them, the answer is definitely less than $10 a month, maybe less than $50 a year.”

When the new options debuted in Canada in February, Sarah Taylor reluctantly agreed to pay the extra. She shares her account with her retired parents, so they can watch Bridgerton action and British crime. But when Netflix later said it actually had to upgrade its primary account to qualify for adding members, Taylor called the company to quit for good.

A customer support representative told her She can keep sharing her account if she streams for a few minutes from her smartphone, drives 25 minutes to her parents’ house, streams back from her phone on their WiFi, and finally logs into her account from the TV. She was told to do this every 14 days and to only be paid $9.99 a month. I decided not to cancel.

“They’re crazy,” says Taylor. A lot of people will get rid of Netflix. I have a lot of things that I know personally.”

For Courtney Levine, it’s less about the money and more about Netflix breaking an undisclosed agreement. Levine is also paying for an account she shares with her older parents, but plans to cancel.

“When they first switched from DVD to streaming, they kind of promoted sharing your passwords,” Levine said. “We all have multiple accounts, Prime, Max and Disney. It’s not like we’re not willing to pay for the things we want, it’s because you built your service on branding that you can share with your family and now you’re changing it.”

There is no shortage of alternatives. But for anyone considering switching so they can stay engaged, Wedbush’s Reese warns that they could follow in Netflix’s footsteps in the future.

“Netflix, they will be the first to move in on this, and I expect to see other operators follow suit over time.”

What exactly are the password sharing rules for Netflix?

While Netflix has been talking about its password plans since last year, the notifications that rolled out this week in the US were effective right away and startled some people. Many were at a loss as to how the company would implement the plan and were surprised to find that it applied to them. Here’s what we know so far:

• Netflix says the account can only be used by members of the same household, who share a single internet connection. Other members who log in from elsewhere can be added for $7.99 per month.
• The restrictions seem to only apply to TVs and not mobile devices at this time. Once you’ve successfully signed in on a smartphone or tablet, you should be able to stream from anywhere.
• You can still travel without problems for up to a month. People will need to connect at the primary site once every 31 days to avoid being logged out.
• If you are moving or plan to be away for more than 31 days, you can change your household location.
• It doesn’t matter what level you’re paying for or your reasons for straying from the baseline. The Company does not have any exceptions for unusual cases such as personnel deployed in the military.
• Netflix mostly uses IP addresses to determine where people are logging in from, but it also uses device identifiers and account activity.
• It indicates the location that is your home base, but you can manually set your home location from Netflix on a TV by going to Get Help → Manage your home Netflix.
• You can only add additional members to the more expensive Standard and Premium plans and the number of additional members is limited. (An additional member on the standard level, and two members on the premium version).
• There are no penalties for sharing, and Netflix police don’t go door-to-door. Only people streaming from secondary sites will be logged out.

Here’s a guide for navigating the expensive landscape of streaming and digital entertainment.