After Backlash From Its Dumb Password Sharing Crackdown, Netflix Lowers Prices In 100 Countries (Just Not In The U.S.)
from the play-stupid-games-win-stupid-prizes dept
So we’ve noted more than a few times that Netflix’s password sharing crackdown is a dumb cash grab. The company had already raised prices, it had already monetized the thing it was worried about (it already charges you extra if you want more simultaneous streams), and its hard 180 from encouraging password sharing to demonizing it turned off users just as streaming competition heated up.
Not too surprisingly, customers haven’t responded well to being nickel-and-dimed by a company whose service quality has taken a bit of a dive, and have threatened to unsubscribe en masse. I’ve not yet seen evidence they actually are yet, but Netflix is clearly worried that they’re about to.
The company announced late last week it would be dropping prices in over 100 countries as it tries to fend off streaming competitors:
Netflix, facing more competition globally in the streaming wars, has cut pricing in more than 100 markets worldwide — in some cases, chopping the price of monthly plans in half — to boost subscriber acquisition and retention.
Netflix first tested its dumb password sharing crackdown in many of these markets to disastrous effect. The idea wasn’t implemented particularly well, leaving many customers confused. Netflix itself admits that these confused and annoyed customers are likely keen on jumping over to streaming companies that won’t punish them for a practice the industry itself spent a decade actively encouraging.
Netflix’s estimates on how much money this password sharing crackdown will make them don’t appear based in reality. As Netflix has gotten larger and more powerful, you can see it behaving more and more like the MPA, Comcast, and other data cherry-picking industry giants, a stark contrast from its origins as a company that fought on the right side of issues like net neutrality.
That said, I still think most Netflix users will tend to stick around for now, given most consumers are lazy, and the value proposition of a service like Netflix remains better (for now) than traditional, bloated and costly cable TV bundles.
Still, the company’s stark personality shift, from disruptive innovator that actually cared about healthy markets, to another nickel-and-diming cable TV provider, is notable and not going anywhere soon. There will be more dumb decisions to come as Netflix fixates exclusively on feeding Wall Street’s insatiable desire for improved quarterly returns at any cost; a one-time innovator doomed to be disrupted.
Filed Under: cable tv, competition, disruption, netflix, password sharing, streaming, video
Companies: netflix
Comments on “After Backlash From Its Dumb Password Sharing Crackdown, Netflix Lowers Prices In 100 Countries (Just Not In The U.S.)”
Netflix is no longer a better price proposition than basic cable
At least not in my part of the world.
If you bundle in everything (or anything) and think that is what you need to compete with Netflix, then yes.
If you look at Netflix in terms of number of hours or entertainment I actually want to watch per season (as opposed to filler), then I would say Netflix is on-par with basic cable at this point. Both in terms of price and quality content. The only thing Netflix saves you is commercials.
For reference: Netflix HD is about $21/month vs basic cable $25/month. That is close enough to make the value proposition insignificant.
But if you live in a city, you can still put up a relatively cheap antenna and get close to basic cable service for essentially a one time fee.
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“The only thing Netflix saves you is commercials.”
…for now…
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They have a free tier, so it only saves you commercials if you pay.
Re: Re: Re: what free tier?
Netflix has a free tier? Oh wait, that’s called piracy.
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Oh, crap! You’re right! The “Basic with Ads” tier is $6.99! I thought it was free!
I’m dumb.
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Did you perhaps somehow think that “We suggest that you might also like….” is not a commercial? Or even on their main menu, “We recommend….”?
Yes, such things are ‘in house’ and are not the boatload of crap that Wall Street thrives on, but nonetheless they’re advertisements, there’s no getting around it.
As the respondent above says, just wait…. Wall Street will have it’s pound of flesh soon enough.
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… if you’re willing to just unreasonably wave away commercials as a non-concern and aren’t considering scheduling, the latter making basic cable pretty much useless. Yeah, there are DVRs, but that requires planning in advance, and really they’re just trickery for those who wish to remain in strict compliance with copyright law or simply don’t know how to use unofficial downloads. And then you’re still fucked if a football game goes long or the President makes an unexpected speech.
Also, even basic cable on many networks requires a set-top box at each TV, and these are invariably awful in terms of usability. And slow; with a 1000+ millisecond delay on each channel-switch, one can’t even “hunt” like in the old days. Netflix, by contrast, is tolerable if you know exactly what you’re looking for and it’s available (but it’s quite bad for aimless browsing—the suggestions seem to be whatever is cheapest for Netflix to send you, as opposed to things you’re likely to enjoy).
As of this month, I am no longer a customer. I honestly won’t miss it.
Arggh!
They’ve kept their pricing the same in South Africa,about 4 dollars a month. I’m still gonna be a pirate, arrgh.
More support for the contention that each individual corporation cares about “healthy markets” only to the extent that it benefits directly.
I stopped paying for Netflix years ago
I missed it a lot at first. I used to browse their catalog for a couple of hours after dinner every day before giving up and going to bed.
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About five years I thought I would give the one month free Australian version of Nutflix a whirl. What a complete waste of time that turned out to be. After signing up and begrudgingly give them credit card details (for future purposes if I wanted to keep going after the trial period). I spent roughly an hour scrolling though the catalogue available to Australian customers, which at that time was 10% of their full listing of shows in the US, I found exactly one program, a documentary about the criminal Whitey Bulger. Clicked on the link and was then informed that I basically had to switch off every security addon and firewall and leave my system open just to be able to view the show.
My entire free month use of Nutflix lasted 1 hour and 47 minutes and I gave Nutflix the nutflix.
gometro
As of this month, I am no longer a customer. I honestly won’t miss it.
… which is, to be honest, one of the bigger reasons I do not use direct deposit or direct debit, for anything.
it's not Netflix vs cable
It’s Netflix vs HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+ or Apple. I’ve tried all but Hulu (that’s up next) but Netflix quality is looking pretty weak overall. There’s no reason to have more than one of these platform at a time anyway.
I left out Amazon because I get that for Prime free shipping anyway. Everything else goes on churn rotation.
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The reason I still have Netflix is because there are Nostalgia-bait and video-game-related shows I still enjoy on the platform, such as That 90’s Show, Cuphead, and The Witcher. Also, I try to keep subscribed to as many subscription services as I can afford to because there’s always going to be a show or movie I would want to watch on one of them (I’m currently watching The Last of Us on HBO Max). That being said, the pivot from ownership to tenancy meant that you don’t own any of these shows and in some cases have a limited time to watch them because they could be taken away from you at a moment’s notice. Fortunately, the MST3K Gizmoplex and Rifftrax are so very good with the concept of ownership that they have Roku apps where you can watch their content all the while being able to download their video content sans DRM. That’s the way it should be, IMHO. They are expensive, but ownership is almost always more expensive than tenancy. Why do you think so many more people rent apartments rather than own condos or houses?
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Wage stagnation as well as corporations and rich people buying up single-family homes and holding them hostage behind nigh-unafforable rent payments.
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Add in house price inflation. I couldn’t afford now
– on my much better current salary – the house I purchased 30 years ago as a low ranking software engineer. The house has increased by x10, salary by x8 – and I’m in the top 10% UK income bracket. A 3.5 multiple at that time bought me a 3 bed house. 3.5 multiple on my current salary is a small 2 bed flat.
It’s hard for people starting out to pull together a deposit when a huge chunk of income goes on rent (and increasingly fuel and food)
Add in house price inflation. I couldn’t afford now
– on my much better current salary – the house I purchased 30 years ago as a low ranking software engineer. The house has increased by x10, salary by x8 – and I’m in the top 10% UK income bracket. A 3.5 multiple at that time bought me a 3 bed house. 3.5 multiple on my current salary is a small 2 bed flat.
It’s hard for people starting out to pull together a deposit when a huge chunk of income goes on rent (and increasingly fuel and food)
No choice but to cancel
Nomads will have no choice but to cancel. As a nomad like others, many of us don’t have a home base with the same IP. Many nomads use multiple IP service providers, which means a different IP address, and location almost every time we use Netflix. On top of that, our family uses a VPN, and that ensures that we have a different IP and location as well. Either way, if and when they implement this, we will be forced to cancel, and they will only be able to get us back if they remove the sharing password restriction. They really did not think this through. So, they will lose truckers, travelers, nomads, and many others. WOW, I am glad I don’t have their stock.
When they institute this in the USA they will lose a little money from me.
Back in the days when they were encouraging password sharing, my sister and I upped our subscription to four streams so that our nieces could watch Netflix on our dime.
However neither niece watches it much anymore so we plan to drop back to the two stream plan when that happens.
Once more, with feeling....
CONTENT FRAGMENTATION IS NOT COMPETITION!
The other streaming services (especially those from the major studios – Disney+, Paramount+, etc) are “competing” with Netflix by gating content behind their own services while, at the same time, pulling content from Netflix.
I’ve been beating this drum every time an article about a dumb Netflix move shows up here because I can pretty much guarantee that the writer will use “competition” when talking about Netflix’s troubles without any acknowledgement that said “competition” is little more than content fragmentation.
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I watched one movie on Netflix, and now when I watch another movie, I feel like I’ve seen it before.
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