Back in 2017 the official Netflix Twitter account tweeted “Love is sharing a password.” It seems as though the company has strayed away from this statement, as a new password sharing policy is being put into place.
According to Netflix’s most recent statement, over 100 million households share Netflix accounts, impacting the company’s potential to “invest in great TV shows and films.”
As a result, the company’s new password sharing policy will require users to set a “primary location” under which members of a single household can stream their favorite content on one account.
If a household would like to share an account outside of its primary location, it would come at an additional price. This renders members physically outside of a primary household as “additional members” rather than being a part of the household.
This is especially unfair for college students as it will heavily impact those who have moved out.
It seems as though once parents drop their kids off at college they will also have to drop them from their Netflix subscription.
As a college student, there is nothing more that I love to do during my free time than stream. If I’m not at the library catching up on work or trying to keep my eyes open during my eight a.m. lectures, it’s likely that I’m streaming my comfort shows or listening to my favorite music on Spotify.
In true broke college student fashion, I share many of my streaming accounts with friends to avoid paying full price.
With this new password sharing policy though, I’ll have to choose between paying $20 per month, plus extra fees per person, or cutting off each person from my family plan while still having to pay full price just to continue using Netflix.
Netflix isn’t offering much to justify this account sharing crackdown either. As hit shows continue to be removed from the platform, whilst questionable originals continue to get renewed (we’re looking at you, “Sexy Beasts”) there is less of an incentive for current Netflix users to renew their subscriptions.
The fact that Netflix does not offer a student discount further weakens its case.
Streaming services such as Paramount +, Hulu and Amazon Prime all offer discounted rates to students for their subscriptions, whilst providing a large catalog for its users to enjoy.
The reality is other streaming services are only getting better and better, leaving Netflix with little to edge out the competition.
At the end of the day, Netflix is still considered a luxury rather than an essential service.
With the amount of other streaming services to choose from that are less expensive and have a wide variety of content, I don’t think it will be too hard for me to say goodbye to Netflix.
I mean, that’s what we did with Blockbuster once the streaming competition became stiffer, right?