Image Source: JoBlo
Last year, Netflix announced that they would be cracking down on password-sharing, charging more to users sharing their accounts with people outside of their households. During a recent earnings call by Netflix, it was announced that the move had been a resounding success for the well-established online streaming service, leaving its co-CEO Ted Sarandos absolutely “thrilled” with how things have turned out due to their initiative.
"Our engagement is a bit impacted by our paid sharing. Think about it like fewer households using the same account," Sarandos said. "So as those folks spin off and get their own accounts, and we win them over with our programming, that will normalize and continue to grow. We're really pleased with our engagement.”
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Not only has this success encouraged Netflix to continue its initiative, but it appears that such crackdowns are now spreading to other streaming platforms, with both Disney+ and Hulu announcing similar initiatives. Disney+ announced a crackdown on account sharing last year in Canada and now they are notifying residents here in the United States of a similar crackdown with the following announcement:
We’re adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how we may assess your compliance with these limitations.
Hulu recently updated its Terms of Subscription on January 25, 2024, which states:
m. Account Sharing. Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. “Household” means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein. Additional usage rules may apply for certain Service Tiers. For more details on our account sharing policy, please visit our Help Center.
We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement. If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement (including those set forth in Section 6 of this Agreement).
You will be responsible for any use of your account by your household, including compliance with this section.
There are currently several methods used by these streaming services to enforce their new restrictions, including checking the IP address of users to determine whether or not people are logging on from different locations and detecting and blocking VPN use. They also attempt to detect if two or more users are viewing the same content at the same time, operating on the assumption that it is unlikely that two or more people are viewing the same content in the same household at the same time. These crackdowns, however, are designed not to block paying customers from accessing content from the streaming from other geo-locations. In terms of Netflix, as long as users sign in at least once a month, people can retain access to the streaming service no matter their location.
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