Despite many people being vocal about cancelling Netflix after the password-sharing crackdown started in the US, it appears that the opposite has happened. Many more are signing up for the service, meaning that the password-sharing crackdown is a success for Netflix.
According to a data analytics company, Antenna, Netflix actually saw a huge spike in subscribers signing up for the service, in the four days after it notified users about the new policies on May 23.
Average daily signups rose to 73,000 during this time, which is a 102% increase over Netflix’s previous 60-day average. Antenna also notes that Netflix added 100,000 subscribers on May 26th, and another 100,000 on May 27. That’s more than what Netflix grabbed when the pandemic first started in March and April of 2020.
Netflix used to promote password-sharing, now it’s charging you extra for it
For years, before streaming really got as popular as it is now, Netflix used to tout how great password-sharing was. However, now it has realized that it is costing them billions a year. So the new policy for Netflix is that users will need to pay $7.99 per month for any user that lives outside of your household. That’s basically an entirely new Netflix subscription added to your account.
After announcing this, Netflix did warn investors about a “cancel reaction”. But so far, it looks like it’s the opposite. Now this could just be those that were sharing passwords, signing up for Netflix on their own, or just signing up for free trials. On the flip side, we also don’t know how many people cancelled Netflix during this time. So while it sounds like good news, it could turn out that more people cancelled than signed up.
Either way, it does look like it’s a good move for Netflix, even if the majority of us disagree with this move.