Netflix is expected to crack down on password sharing in the first quarter of 2023. However, with said plans being put in place months in advance, the streaming giant is braced for pushback from paying customers that could cancel their subscriptions.
Password sharing and many other topics were among the main talking points after Netflix dropped its final 2022 earnings report, which came with the news that co-CEO Reed Hastings would be stepping down from his role. Still, Netflix had plenty of good news to share, as the streaming service saw 7.66 million new subscribers join the platform towards the end of 2022, which nearly doubled expectations now that its Basic with Ads plan came into play.
Hastings, along with new CEO duet Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters discussed these matters with Variety, concluding that password sharing “will not be a universally popular move,” which could lead to cancellations as Netflix's price hikes often tend to do. The company is basing that assessment on its trial runs for paid password-sharing features tested in parts of Latin America, where Netflix users gave conflicting accounts of its usefulness due to the uncertainty surrounding the streamer’s practices. No details were given on how password-sharing will be handled in the future.
In the same interview, top officials also addressed how Netflix with ads will impact the company’s finances in the future. They admitted Disney's Hulu has had a massive head start in that field, though the sector will be an important part of its revenue stream in years to come. On a different note, they also commented on rumors that Netflix could be interested in buying the WWE after Vince McMahon's return by merely stating that the company cannot discuss any potential acquisitions.
Netflix's stance on password sharing has drastically changed over the years, as it was only in 2017 that the company used the “Love is sharing a password” motto on social media. Now it seems like love will require paying extra money for sharing. Despite the latest growth spurt that now puts Netflix at 231 million subscribers worldwide, the current trend for streaming companies is searching for more income avenues, namely in the form of advertisement, as the total number of users seems close to maxing out, or at least not growing as much as it did in the past.
The last bit of info shared by the CEOs had to do with Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, now one of Netflix's biggest films. Still, that won't change the streaming giant's strategy of limited theatrical release for its best movies, as its main goal is still to turn as many people as possible into paying customers.
Source: Variety