Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing is a huge success, as the company reported gaining subscribers in the last couple of quarters, despite an official password-sharing plan.
Netflix added nearly 6 million new subscribers in the last quarter, aligning with the third-party reports of password crackdown being a hit. Also, Netflix has cancelled the basic tier in the US and UK after Canada earlier.
A Successful Crackdown Campaign
For a long time, Netflix intentionally allowed the password-sharing practice to prevail, despite costing the company millions in revenue loss. Well, this exception was taken seriously after it lost millions of subscribers for the first time earlier last year.
This led the company to crack on password sharing practise finally, which is now showing fruit. According to Netflix’s Q2 2023 results, the OTT platform has gained around 6 million users in the quarter, an 8% gain in the total paid subscriber base.
This shows how hit the company’s crackdown is and aligns with the earlier reports from third-party stats – saying the same. In its report, Netflix wrote;
“The cancel reaction was low, and while we’re still in the early stages of monetization, we’re seeing healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships as well as the uptake of our extra member feature.”
To counter and convert the illegal password-sharing practice, Netflix even introduced a Basic with an Ads tier for a slightly lower price than the regular Basic plan, while a new method for officially sharing passwords with someone outside the household – for a somewhat higher price.
Further, the company noted cancelling its $10 “basic” plan in the United States and UK after axing the same plan in Canada last month. And lastly, Netflix pledges to block password sharing in the few remaining countries where it hasn’t already done so – like India, Indonesia, Kenya and Croatia, soon.
