Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Netflix announced last week that it’s testing out a way to charge users for sharing their accounts with people outside their households. The streaming platform wants to make some extra money from those who share their passwords, and the reasoning it gave is that account sharing is impacting the company’s ability to invest in new projects. We’re not sure why it took Netflix so long to realize this and make account sharing paid. People have been sharing their Netflix passwords with family members and friends since the service’s inception. Sadly, those days might end, with the paid account sharing feature going to the test bed in select countries.
So we asked our readers how they feel about Netflix’s plan. Here’s how they voted in our poll.
Are you okay with Netflix charging extra for password sharing?
Results
The results of our poll about paid Netflix account sharing are entirely one-sided. 87% of over 2,700 voters said that they absolutely oppose the idea of Netflix charging more for account and password sharing. Meanwhile, a slim percentage (13%) of the respondents voted to say that they are okay paying Netflix a little more for sharing their accounts with folks outside their households.
What you had to say
Joshua Fraim: So family account only applies to people living in the same house. Bull shit.
saintfighteraqua: If I have to pay an extra fee for any of my family members who use Netflix when they travel or use it at the gym, a friend’s house at work on break, etc, I will drop Netflix. The value already isn’t there and prices keep rising.
Marshall: If Netflix starts policing my account based on where and how my family members choose to use the service I’ve paid for, it’s toast.
Kelly Jo Anderson: Netflix increased their prices not so very long ago. That increase should more than cover the $2 or $3 they are now discussing; they should need no further increase. What about those of us who share expenses with another parent for our children of whom we have joint custody? And those of us who have children who are away attending college? Or those who are helping to care for and provide for disabled children, elderly parents, and other members of the family who are struggling, but remain determined to live independently? Netflix will lose way more revenue than it will gain, as well as the damage it will do to its already flawed reputation if it decides to go down this path.
JWB: It’s pretty obvious to me that Netflix increased their prices and people dropped them, so now Netflix is increasing their prices again here, under a different excuse because they already used the obvious one, just to compensate themselves for a loss in profit. IME Netflix need to up their game anyway and watch themselves, so many things I’d expect to be there which are not, so many absolute shyte films and series…they need to watch their own backs on this I think! Bad choice Netflix, you’ve burst your own bubble! People will leave and won’t look back!
Michelle Howell: Being for or against this depends on how they plan to determine that a password has been shared.
For example, we don’t have a home internet account and use our mobile phones as a Hotspot when we want to watch Netflix.
So if they plan to determine this based on IP address then we will potentially have 6 additional charges to our account, depending on whose phone is being used, which is absolutely ludicrous. However, if people are just trying to be dodgy and giving other people their password, then yes there should be additional charges. It’s very wrong if people are too scummy to even pay $3 a month and are trying to avoid paying anything at all by using their friend’s password. However, again I come back to my first point…how will they determine that a password has been shared? I personally predict they will do it by IP address and that many families like ours, will end up being incorrectly penalized and charged extra despite the fact that we only use it at home and have never shared the password.
StopTheGreenTerrorists: I couldn’t care less about account sharing. However, if they suddenly start to complain if I use Netflix when I’m traveling or at my girlfriend’s place, well let’s just say that the threshold for using “alternate sources” for my viewing will drop drastically.
