200,000 users abandon Netflix after crackdown backfires::Aussies have spoken, and the results are not looking good for Netflix. A new report reveals why users are turning to streaming competitors.

    • Jo Miran
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      2 years ago

      I live in multiple places with each stay lasting about three months. So far Netflix has not given me shit about it. It just asks me if I want to movey home address. As long as it continues to let me move around, we’re cool. The moment it decides that I have to open a separate account per home, I am out. I watch Paramount+ the most anyway.

      EDIT: Honestly, the real conversation should be how mid Netflix original content is most of the time. Their best shit is stuff they import.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        I have a similar lifestyle thanks to work and Netflix did exactly what will make you cancel. Whatever you do, don’t set it up on your home smart TV because that’s the thing that screwed up my account. Suddenly, I had to create new accounts for every random hotel I was living in for months at a time or go home every 30 days to reconnect to my home WiFi. I cancelled as soon as the account I paid for, that I didn’t share outside my household suddenly stopped working. As an aside, I wonder how this effects other traveling people: truckers, military families, traveling nurses, or air crew.

    • FartsWithAnAccent
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      2 years ago

      “Yes, I’d love to pay even more money for even shittier service. Thank you!”

      -People apparently

    • ShustOne
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      72 years ago

      I was going to post the same, thank you. I hate it but this has caused dramatically more signups

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      Every time Netflix was in the front page of reddit, I’d check my Netflix stock.

      My Netflix stock keeps increasing. The first so called “massive exodus” took it from $140 to $220. It’s currently over $400.

      So… Yeah.

    • bean
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      2 years ago

      Maybe. It’s just the start right? How many will keep those subscriptions? What about when they raise costs again? I’ve had a Netflix account for a really really long time. I was even grandfathered into a plan at one point. Eventually was forced into coughing up more and more money, getting less and less for it. It wasn’t just the password sharing. It was the way they keep running their business, and how it’s going across the whole streaming system. I cancelled my service a few days ago after over a decade of service.

      On top of this all: 🤬 ads. I’m so sick of being bombarded literally everywhere. From Products I buy and bring home, to being outside of the house. I’m sick of being a cash cow and getting ’trickle down’ wages and dealing with inflation. So yeah. 🖕 Netflix.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      I hate to say it, but the crackdown worked exactly as intended.

      Of course it did. Why wouldn’t it? It’s not like anyone is thinking “oh my grandson’s friend can’t use my account for free anymore, I’m going to cancel my subscription now!”. All while Netflix is dramatically reducing their server load costs.

    • @[email protected]
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      362 years ago

      And yet their stock dropped massively after revealing the 5 million gain because investors realize that it was a one time boost that won’t help them in the long run.

    • SkaveRat
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      2 years ago

      iirc, they launched in new countries at the same time, skewing the result quite a bit. Probably intentional to say “see? it worked”

      Edit: can’t quite find a source for it. Might have been somthing I misread. Take with a grain of salt

      • Hunter2
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        982 years ago

        Not to mention that they did start with the narrative that they start enforcing this on a certain date, but it took me 2 months over that to receive the warning/being locked out. I remember seeing people from Canada (one of the countries in the first wave) that still had not been forced off 4 months into the date they had set.

        They appear to be taking it slow (not booting off everyone at the same time) to build this narrative that it’s working fantastically so to not get a massive drop off in users (stock price drop) and waiting out for their competition to also move forward with this change. All of this while also adding more markets, dropping the prices in others and removing the cheaper plans.

        • @[email protected]
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          472 years ago

          Yeah, it’s not like people quit because Netflix said they’ll crack down.

          They’ll quit after Netflix hassles them a couple times for it.

          • @[email protected]
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            82 years ago

            I quit Netflix because all of the shows I wanted to watch left their service. I literally paid for the service to watch one show by the time i cancelled my subscription. Not worth it.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 years ago

            I cancelled pre-emptivly as soon as I heard. But I was probably too early to count since that was January. I also ticked the box for “too expensive” despite writing in the account sharing as the reason and now they keep emailing me about the ad supported plan.

          • @[email protected]
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            2 years ago

            I quit when they announced it, their announcement made me dust off my raspberry pi, got a 1tb SSD, and install Plex media server.

            Their content has been in a free fall for ages, along with non stop price increases.

            I only kept it because my mum and brother also used it, and it was convenient, now they just ask me to download the shows and movies they want and watch it from my Plex server.

            • @[email protected]
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              42 years ago

              Not everybody knows how to use a Pi+Plex or has a friendly familiy member who knows that and is willing to share.

              So it makes sense that most people just kept hanging on until they got booted, rather than preemptivelly dusting off their old wooden leg and eye patch and once again hoisting the Jolly-Roger…

              • @[email protected]
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                22 years ago

                Yeah I get that, it’s a shame because it’s super cheap and the guides online make it easy as hell to set up. But I understand that terminal is scary for some

          • @[email protected]
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            92 years ago

            They will quit when they notice it on their bills. I find it hard to believe most people will just eat the additional fees and do nothing about it.

        • @[email protected]
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          32 years ago

          As far as I’m aware, our account for the notification once, my wife exited it without doing anything, and everyone is still able to access it to this day.

          • @[email protected]
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            02 years ago

            I vaguely remember seeing somewhere that Netflix will automatically charge you more if you keep using it in that way. But I could be misremembering. Double check your recent bills.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 years ago

              Nah, it’s been sitting at $21.09 for quite a long time now, and I’ve got a spending limit on that card to kill any attempts over $22 within a month.

          • @[email protected]
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            32 years ago

            Can you share how they got around it? My dad shares my account and he just said it told him he couldn’t watch any more. I couldn’t get him to tell me what the screen said exactly so I could help.

      • @[email protected]
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        232 years ago

        It probably did work though. We had some relatives piggy-backing off of our top tier 20 year old account when we got shut down last August in what must have been beta testing for the program. We cancelled our account. I’m not sure how many of the relatives ended up getting their own accounts but the poorest and least able to afford an additional monthly charge went and signed right up, so they were at at least a net zero change in subs there (though they signed up for the cheapest option).

        People are just disappointing.

          • @[email protected]
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            82 years ago

            I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted, because you’re not wrong. When you’re struggling with money monthly fluff should be one of the first things trimmed, not added.

            • @[email protected]
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              32 years ago

              I’ve found fedis to have some weird echo chamber opinions. With the trend of blaming the boomers for the economy (which I agree with, don’t get me wrong), many seem to think that it absolves them of any personal responsibility whatsoever for their own finances

              • @[email protected]
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                22 years ago

                Any forum can be an echo chamber; there’s nothing specific about the fediverse. For example: Reddit, Facebook groups, 4chan/pol, etc.

                • @[email protected]
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                  12 years ago

                  Well, pretty sure 4chan is run mostly by the Russian FSB these days.

                  It’s so easy to manipulate when you don’t even have to fake a backstory for different users.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 years ago

        I was looking at sky sports in the UK and the majority of their packages had “free Netflix” offers included. I wonder if enough of those signs ups would have influenced the numbers?

      • @[email protected]
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        52 years ago

        I don’t know about launching in new countries, but a lot of the new subscribers were added in countries where Netflix is cheaper so while they did add a lot of subscribers the revenue increase wasn’t large.

    • UltraMagnus0001
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      32 years ago

      the ad supported subscription cost less, so I wonder if they are still making as much money

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        Supposedly, Netflix makes more from the ads tier:

        In Q2, as in the previous quarter, Netflix’s advertising tier generated higher average revenue per user (ARPU) overall than the Standard ad-free plan ($15.49/month), implying more than $8.50/month in ad revenue per subscriber, Neumann said.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        I wouldn’t be surprised if the ad supported tier made more money than the cheapest ad-free tier. Ads are a huge business.

    • Bri Guy
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      22 years ago

      wow, surprising in a way but i guess people just want easy access to content to binge

      • pips
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        42 years ago

        It costs less to add a household than it does to have two subscriptions. Netflix was at least somewhat smart about it.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        Cable cost hundreds and still had ads, people won’t give a fuck over 20$ if that means relative ease of watching season 57 of Big Mouth

        • @[email protected]
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          32 years ago

          The only people down voting this are people who haven’t been on cable in years and have no idea how bad it is.

  • Carlos Solís
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    242 years ago

    Well, if I couldn’t afford a subscription service before, now I absolutely can’t. Problem is I’m too much of a goody two-shoes and as a result I don’t pirate either - I genuinely haven’t seen a single TV series in almost a decade as a result, and at this point I’m scared of people expecting me to understand cultural references I can’t afford to legally learn

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      Not going to lie- while I do watch most of what interests me in a timely manner, I’ve found that any cultural references that I do miss are easily explained via memes.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      Honestly you’re probably better off and more interesting for your lack of pop culture knowledge.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Hahahahahahahaha. I was like that guy in my youth, not knowing what people were talking about was alienating. I was reading a lot of books instead and, of course, nobody understood the references too.

    • @[email protected]
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      242 years ago

      You’re gonna die some day. Just watch the shows you want, you’re not taking food out of a director’s mouth.

    • @[email protected]
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      102 years ago

      Eh… I’m not going to try to convince you that piracy is the answer, I’ll just mention that you’re already giving them as much as you’re willing to watch their content, why not just watch it anyway?

      Funnily enough, we pay for most streaming services in our household, but I use Stremio and get my content off the high seas because it’s all contained in a single app, and doesn’t feed their analytics.

    • Chaos
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      2 years ago

      Subscriptions are there for those who can afford it. If you literally cannot, I don’t see the problem with sailing the seven seas until you can.

  • @[email protected]
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    112 years ago

    Breaking news; several users who were not paying for Netflix are now still not paying for Netflix.

  • @[email protected]
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    852 years ago

    Thanks for posting this. I almost forgot to cancel my subscription to Netflix. Thanks for the reminder 🙂

  • @[email protected]
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    32 years ago

    My stolen Netflix still works on mobile and desktop. My main use case so the crackdown didn’t really affect me.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    I mean sure, turn to streaming competitors, but they are not going to be any better in the long term.

    The entire subscription model sucks. It’s really bad value for the consumer and makes us pay huge amount of money every month for nothing once we have watched what we want to watch.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      Best suggestion I’ve heard is rotating subscriptions. Netflix for 3-4 months and watch everything you’re interested in then cancel, Apple TV next for 3-4 months then cancel, next maybe Hulu or Max, finally loop back around to Netflix.

      Or maybe some might find it works better to rotate 2 services, or keep one like Disney always for the kids but rotate another. Regardless it’s not too much of a hassle and avoids paying for 4, 5 or 6 services at a time.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        One of my kids asks maybe once in six months to watch something on Disney+ so I subscribe and instantly cancel (don’t get me started about auto renew). I swear in that six months there are maybe a handful of new shows and movies that are worth watching and the rest is the same old junk as before. It probably doesn’t help that Disney is making some really terrible content lately.

        Netflix isn’t quite so bad but I can see why people would want to take a break from it. While I think they have a slightly better hit ratio than Disney they’ve also put out some expensive stinkers too.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          I think people like you and me who don’t like the most stupid shit on the streaming services are not getting value for money. Maybe it’s great for people who love whatever comes up there, but Im having a hard time finding something I actually want to watch too.

          • @[email protected]
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            12 years ago

            This hits home. 10 years ago, Netflix was great! It had this huge catalog, so you could easily find something to watch.

            Then, bit by bit, they started losing shows. I’d start hearing from friends “Hey, you should check xyz out” – not available for streaming.

            By time I dropped my subscription in 2019, there wasn’t much I was still interested in. I think the last show I had watched was The Crown, and there was a long delay between seasons on that one, IIRC.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      My new streaming service is powered by open source software and has a black flag on the rear end of the ship. I’ll be fine.

      In the end I’m one of those pirates with an enormous inventory of movies purchased on YouTube and other services, I just don’t want to support services that pride themselves with cancelling after season one.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        My new streaming service is powered by open source software and has a black flag on the rear end of the ship. I’ll be fine.

        Best service out there!

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Subscription models are so monumentally better than cable that it’s unreal. It is absolutely not a “huge” amount of money compared to the alternative of cable+“premium channels” which was the only way to even begin to approach the level of content currently available via streaming.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Maybe it’s better than cable but it’s still not worth the money in my opinion. All my subs are just idling (the two I have left). There is nothing good on there and it sucks paying for something I don’t use just in case there will be a show worth watching in the future.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          I’m not in the habit of dictating financial choices for others. If it’s not worth it you, I totally respect that. 10 years ago I would not have subscribed to more than one service, which I would probably have rotated (if they existed), because I wouldn’t be able to afford it.

          It is not, however, a worse deal than cable/dish networks, just as a matter of comparison. You’d face the same content problems but pay the same or more for even more content you are not interested in.

          I went without any sort of cable/dish for a long time, until my wife got a sweet deal through her work, because it didn’t make financial sense to us. It was still a bit of a rip-off even at the discounted rate because there was little content we actually wanted.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Yeah I don’t think I want to juggle subscriptions between 5 different streaming providers. Not my idea of fun.

        • the post of tom joad
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          Yeah that’s waaaay more work than im willing to do. MY streaming service has all the shows for a great price.

          Yarr baby, after a few years going straight, im back sailing the red line

  • ensignrolaren
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    382 years ago

    I canceled as soon as they said they were going to be cracking down, months ago. I pay for 4 screens, and on principle, I want to be allowed to use them without being nagged or scolded or banned. So if they don’t want my business on those terms, there are plenty of other streaming services with just as much content I like.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      Same here. I was paying for four accounts, and it shouldn’t matter where they’re logged in. I haven’t missed it at all

  • @[email protected]
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    412 years ago

    Who are these 50% of Aussies who think we need more locally produced content on streaming services? Our content sucks, who’s actually watching these Aussie dramas / series

    • @[email protected]
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      142 years ago

      Deadloch would like to have a word.

      But seriously, I can imagine 50% of people saying in the abstract they would like more locally produced content, though I’m not sure that it would actually affect purchasing behaviour.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 years ago

      Probably the same kind of people who make similar arguments about CanCon.

      There’s always been this tension between “We need a thriving TV and film industry in this country” and “Most of what we produce is garbage for the purpose of using government grants” here. Can’t help but wonder if it’s the same on your end of the planet (#justcommonwealththings).

      At least there are always a couple diamonds in the sludge, though (here, Schitt’s Creek, TPB, and I’m sure some others even though the other ones I think of are looong over)

    • @[email protected]
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      12 years ago

      It is way better than the american stuff. we either look for BBC or Aussie productions for good acting and characters with depth.

    • @[email protected]
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      92 years ago

      Australian taskmaster is a treasure and there’s nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      Modern Aussie dramas kinda suck, but for comedy we’ve made some absolute gems in the past like Rake, Kath and Kim, and All Aussie Adventures.

      Also back in th day we made some solid dramas like Underbelly, and All Saints.

    • andrew
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      2 years ago

      How very dare you do my girls Bluey and Bingo like that.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        I really liked showing bluey to my kid, as in I enjoyed watching it, the kid doesn’t understand shit yet. But my SO started pointing out that the “morals” were a bit off sometimes, like the dad is always giving in to what the kids want, they get rewarded for being a bit nasty, etc etc. Have you ever felt that way?

        • @[email protected]
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          2 years ago

          Every day i wake up hoping this is not the day of playing the living statue. Again.

        • andrew
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          22 years ago

          Yeah I’m more responding to “Our content sucks, who’s actually watching these Aussie dramas / series.” Maybe it’s different for actual Aussies but as an American I know Bluey is a household favorite.

  • @[email protected]
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    302 years ago

    200,000 users is like a piss in the ocean for Netflix, especially when every other major streaming platform is also hiking prices, introducing ads and cracking down on account sharing.

    We are still far from the days of cable.

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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      122 years ago

      The significance of this, in my opinion, isn’t that Netflix lost 200,000 users in Australia, but that for the first time Netflix has seen a decline of users in Australia. No more line goes up, oh no!

      Either way, this is probably less from password crackdowns, more people jumping to alternative streaming platforms.

    • @[email protected]
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      202 years ago

      Who does your post serve? It’s definitely meaningful, especially inn a relatively smaller population like Australia.

      Your post smells like piss.

  • @[email protected]
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    542 years ago

    I don’t care about Netflix password sharing policies. But I do very care about their content policy. I don’t even start a new show until I know they finished it without cancelling it half way through. I also do care about the fragmentation in the streaming industry. I’m not willing to buy me in in 5 streaming services just to view 5 different shows.

    Fuck you, I’ll go back to the bay.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      I hate them both! I’m still not over the fact that they cancelled Inside Job. It’s just the latest in a long line of shows we’ll be forever left unsatisfied with no ending and I hate it.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    Users =/= Subscribers. Most of these users are probably not paying users so from a financial perspective it does not hurt Netflix to shed them.

  • @[email protected]
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    442 years ago

    We split an account between 4 households, paying a quarter each. When the crackdown happened, 2 including my house cancelled and the 3rd paid for the extra user. So they halved their users from our account, but increased revenue anyway. Seems like a win for them.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 years ago

      It’s only a short-time gain though. With a shared account between 4 households, chances that one of them is actively using the service is much higher than with only 2 users. If a service is used less and less, chances are increasing it’s going to get canceled (especially now that prices are soaring while wages are not increasing accordingly).

    • @[email protected]
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      22 years ago

      Do you mean they increased their revenue overall? Despite losing 2 households of viewers because of the increase in individuals paying for it outside of your 4 households?

      Because you said 2 households dropped out and the other 2 paid more each. But that would still total to the same amount of money to netflix but a lower viewership, which affects their engagement stats and might get more netflix originals cancelled or other shows dropped.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          Sorry. Im sleep deprived brain forgot that the 2nd household would need to pay the fee for the 2nd household you can add on to your account or for a separate account entirely.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 years ago

          But they would have been paying for multiple screens, so it’s not one super cheap account

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    I used to use my dad’s account. Now I just don’t use Netflix. So far im not missing much.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 years ago

    I am now happily sailing the seas. Guess who is the one that makes the content readily available

  • @[email protected]
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    22 years ago

    Even with Netflix losing 200k in Australia, I’m sure with data/infra costs they still came out on top