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Netflix may be losing $192M per month from subscription sharing, cord cutting study claims

Septimus Prime

Septimus Prime

EA
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
8,500
https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/27/n...-month-from-piracy-cord-cutting-study-claims/

As many as 1 in 5 people today are mooching off of someone else's account when streaming video from Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Video, according to a new study from CordCutting.com. Of these, Netflix tends to be pirated for the longest period — 26 months, compared with 16 months for Amazon Prime Video or 11 months for Hulu. That could be because Netflix freeloaders often mooch off their family instead of a friend — 48 percent use their parents' login, while another 14 percent use their sister or brother's credentials, the firm found.

At a base price of $7.99 per month (the study was performed before Netflix's January 2019 price increase), freeloading users could save $207.74 over a 26-month period. At scale, these losses can add up, the study claims.
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There's an argument that those who pirate would never be paying customers, so these aren't true losses. It's the same sort of thing that was said about Napster mp3 downloads back in the day, or about those pirating movies through The Pirate Bay. But there is some portion of the freeloading population that claims they would pay, if they lost access.

According to the study, 59.3 percent said they would pay for Netflix (or around 14 million people), contributing at least $112 million in monthly revenue, if they lost access.
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Do you pay for Netflix? I currently sometime to Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, and I really don't see myself adding other services like DC Universe or Disney Plus.

I think we're on the cusp of so much fragmentation of services that piracy will once again be seen as the only viable consolidator.
 

Deleted member 24907

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
5,354
Since when is account sharing, which Netflix themselves facilitates with sub-accounts you can access across the country, considered "piracy"?
 
Buzzman

Buzzman

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,549
I think it's stupid to call account-sharing "piracy". That's normally not what that term means.
 
menacer

menacer

Member
Dec 15, 2018
1,036
Well yeah I pay for it and it mostly is worth it. Just wanna see next months movies they have in store.
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
27,690
Brazil
Pretty much every person I know that pirates movies and tv shows pay for at least one streaming service. Some more than one.
 
Sunster

Sunster

The Fallen
Oct 5, 2018
10,017
I'm on a Netflix family plan but technically I think I shouldn't be because we're not in the same household. lol But yeah, there's just too many services now. Like people are so excited to spend more money on the new Disney sub... It's getting to be as expensive as cable now.
 
menacer

menacer

Member
Dec 15, 2018
1,036
Them removing Always Sunny In Philadelphia really pissed me off and hopefully someday it comes back.
 
cvxfreak

cvxfreak

DINO CRISIS SUX
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
945
Tokyo
Netflix at a glance has a very liberal account sharing policy.

For years, my brother and I have shared an account. I live in Tokyo; he lives in San Francisco. So for one payment, I get access to Japanese Netflix and he gets the US catalog. They allow it, so that's how we use it!
 
Zulith

Zulith

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,748
West Coast, USA
freeloading users could save $207.74 over a 26-month period. At scale, these losses can add up, the study claims.
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If you could save over $200 from a simple life alteration you wouldn't do it if the money made a lot of difference to you? And calling sharing a login piracy is a hell of a stretch.

I don't share mine with anyone currently but I would if I got something in return, like a Hulu login or something
 
entrydenied

entrydenied

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
7,565
That's a really strange way of determining piracy since the different plans allow simultaneous logins. Did they think one single person would simultaneously play 4 screens at one time?
 
SinkFla

SinkFla

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,442
Pensacola, Fl
My fiance's family and my family live like 20 minutes away and share a Netflix account. She already pays extra to have it accessible on more devices so calling this piracy is absurd lol.
 
jobrro

jobrro

The Fallen
Nov 19, 2017
1,625
I pay for it but share it with one of my sisters. Heck, if I knew my sister wasn't going to use it for a while I'd probably stop my subscription for a few months since I'm not watching it that much at the moment.

They already limit the number of simultaneous screens, as long as you aren't hitting that limit all the time I can't see how it is piracy.
 
FloatingDivider

FloatingDivider

Member
Oct 27, 2017
730
The next step is making sure only one individual set of eyes is capable of watching programming on a single account to stop shared couch piracy. Projected losses from couch sharing piracy are somewhere in the region of $738 million and our study has indicated that only capturing some of the money is not enough, we need all of the money.
 
KHarvey16

KHarvey16

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
9,193
The idea this is news to streaming services and they don't currently price this in as a feature explicitly offered is absurd. Further, calling a shared login "mooching" is stupid.
 

Deleted member 23212

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
11,225
Using someone else's account is piracy? When they even give you the option of setting up profiles for it?
 
Zoc

Zoc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,017
Sounds like Netflix is laying the groundwork for a new block on account sharing. Reminds me of a few years ago, when they cut off access to international versions.
 
hibikase

hibikase

User requested ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,820
That's a nice clickbait headline. Sharing an account is certainly a grey area thing but it sure as hell isn't piracy.
 

JustinP

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,343
Nintendo may be losing hundreds of million dollars a month to piracy*

*people borrowing their friends games
 
Syriel

Syriel

Banned
Dec 13, 2017
11,088
Septimus Prime said:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/27/n...-month-from-piracy-cord-cutting-study-claims/



Do you pay for Netflix? I currently sometime to Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, and I really don't see myself adding other services like DC Universe or Disney Plus.

I think we're on the cusp of so much fragmentation of services that piracy will once again be seen as the only viable consolidator.
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Netflix, quite literally, does not care about this.

For Netflix, it's both part of the value proposition (buy a better sub, get more concurrent streams) and a viral way for the service to spread (eventually college kids want their own account because they don't want mom and dad snooping the watch list).
 
TheDanger

TheDanger

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
958
that's so fucking stupid, do they really think that Netflix wouldn't stop account sharing if they wanted to?

In any case, calling account sharing piracy is utterly ridiculous.
 

Deleted member 2254

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,467
That ain't piracy for sure. And it's a bit of an impossible calculation to do there, there's bound to be plenty of people who use Netflix because their parents/friend/SO/etc. already pays for it and therefore he/she can use it for free or for a small fee, but these people wouldn't necessarily want to shell out 10-15 bucks per month if it came to that. Not to mention this is all extra exposition for Netflix as a platform and for its content, which in turn generates social media awareness, merchandising sales, etc. etc.. So what this article calls "pirates" may actually be beneficial for Netflix, and it's not surprising they are actively encouraging these practices: the more users they have, the merrier for them.
 
Syriel

Syriel

Banned
Dec 13, 2017
11,088
Zoc said:
Sounds like Netflix is laying the groundwork for a new block on account sharing. Reminds me of a few years ago, when they cut off access to international versions.
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Netflix also never cared about this. For Netflix a sub, is a sub, is a sub.

The studios cared, and the studios forced Netflix's hand on locking down DNS redirects.

Netflix's long term goal is a wholly global catalog. You want a corporate champion for no geo-blocking? Netflix is it.
 
Mottschi

Mottschi

Member
Oct 28, 2017
60
Versailles, France
Technically, Netflix Terms of Service do state:

  • 4.2. The Netflix service and any content viewed through our service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household. During your Netflix membership, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access the Netflix service and view Netflix content through the service. Except for the foregoing, no right, title or interest shall be transferred to you. You agree not to use the service for public performances.
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Netflix does not seem to care that much (so far), but considering how they changed their stance on proxy use to access other countries Netflix libraries, they might take steps to prevent it in the future.
 

itsgreen

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
768
Just like piracy, you can't directly say if X amount of people use a shared account, they would have bought a subscription otherwise...
 
entrydenied

entrydenied

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
7,565
If Netflix cared about this they wouldn't allow multiple profiles and multiple screens. They're already charging for it.
 
Acidote

Acidote

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,973
What. I pay for the expensive tier precisely so I can share it with my brothers and niece. That's not piracy. If I wanted it just for myself I'd go for the cheapest one and I'd let it lapse every now and then. This article can fuck off.
 
OsakaDon

OsakaDon

Member
Oct 29, 2017
965
Osaka, Japan
I think I'm confused about what they think piracy is.
My wife and I each have a profile inside the Netflix account that they let us create.
Why are they bitching about one of the features they gave its users. Are they expecting each member of a household to pay for their own account. Because that is horse shit that they can shovel right up their greedy asses.
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,093
This is the dumbest shit I've read today. I pay for the top streaming package, and it allows me to have multiple screens running Netflix. Are they expecting all 4 screens to be in use by me simultaneously?
 
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