Netflix accounts are still shareable, but only within one household. To ensure that your devices are associated with your primary location, Netflix is now asking users to connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days.
https://thestreamable.com/news/confirmed-netflix-unveils-fir…
I imagine they'll be testing by IP address, not by SSID.
This would also catch out those who "live internationally" unless you can luck out on the same IP address through your VPN.
The most obvious workaround to this would be to reactivate then cancel immediately, and renewing if required the next month, thereby (presumably) resetting the 31 days counter.
Precisely. We've already cancelled. Senior parents (clueless) used to watch our Netflix for a bit of variety and chip in.
After all this, it's simply not worth the money or hassle to either group.
🏴☠️
The same, we share with parents and a sibling. All 3 households are 'low' consumers of netflix content but handy to have around, so sharing an account works price wise for us and we all sort of keep it going as no one wants to be the first to drop out ;)
If netflix pushes this, then I'll cancel netflix and enable it for a month here and there as needed to binge watch the content then cancel again or just go back to the old way of getting content, hello Plex my old friend ;)
Yep, I share mine with family and don't watch much on Netflix but kept it going not to upset other family members, we all chip in for the cost, once this kicks in, goodbye Netflix.
I can't see my other family members paying full price for it either, just too hard to justify (for us).
If anything good comes to it, I will just subscribe for 1 month to watch that show and cancel again.
If they decide to block my devices or ask me to pay extra for sharing my password…
I will cancel my account and go back to sailing the high seas.
Not really. They want those users who are sharing to buy individual accounts.
Well, yes.
Split the sharer group into 3 categories
Group 1: People who are adept at sailing the high seas but lazy and will only use a free (someone else's) password.
Group 2: People who are adept at sailing the high seas but lazy and would rather just give Netflix the $ for quality of life (but they share their passwords)
Group 3: People who can't sail the high seas and are happy to use someone else's password.
They want people in Group 1 and Group 3 to buy accounts and are making access difficult for them to make them do so.
The way you do that is you make them unable to use a shared password.
You lose Group 2, but they're feeding Group 1 and 3 anyway.
Same thing happened to RAA roadside assistance.
Use to be able to use it per account now it's per car or driver.
They want you gone.
I’ll happily oblige and keep my money.
I share my password with my siblings. None of us are addicted to Netflix, it’s a movie or 2 over the weekend.
I’m sure we’ll be ok with ABC iview and SBS on Demand.
I’m sure we’ll be ok with ABC iview
Username checks out
They want you gone.
LOL no they don't, they want those sharing accounts to get their own accounts as this boosts user numbers and income. Which makes shareholders happy.
It's semantics. It's like saying a shopkeeper wants shoplifters gone. Of course, what they (also) want is the person to pay for the things instead of stealing them.
They want the stealing to stop (one way or another).
@CrowReally: LOL Sharing your netflix account isnt the same as shoplifting/stealing. An account is being paid for, that account has profiles as a 'feature' you purchased and has concurrent streaming as a paid feature etc. Now netflix is like oh we could profit by stopping people sharing passwords and using the 'features' they paid for.
So using your shopkeeper analogy, it would be the shopkeeper is no longer going to sell a 1.25l bottle of coke to kids as they are sharing it, and instead now wants them to buy two 600ml bottles.
@JimmyF: The real answer depends on how 'okay' it is to just share (or sell) your password to just anyone you want because "simultaneous parallel streaming" or whatever is a feature on Netflix.
If the T&C's permit this, then you're correct.
If they don't, it's not okay at all.
Either way, they're taking steps to prevent that sort of behaviour.
If you're correct, they'll change the T&C's as part of the process to make their actions legit and it goes from being okay to not okay.
The real answer depends on how 'okay' it is to just share (or sell) your password
Well you know, the CEO said it was ok……
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/netflix-is-c…
Either way, they're taking steps to prevent that sort of behaviour.
And this change of heart will come with outcomes like users just giving up as it is too hard/too costly now.
@CrowReally: Hardly Semantics - they have run out of growth so some bright-spark has desperately suggested cracking down on pw sharing, hoping that'll create more growth for Netflix. It's a gamble, that's for sure!
@ThithLord: I don't think it's that big a gamble.
Making password-sharing difficult means the people in #2 are now forced to be the people in #1.
If they "lose" the people in group #2, they've "lost" someone who wasn't paying to use the service to start with, so whatever.
There's the "risk" that the HardQuizzers of the world will cancel their services entirely out of spite, but in reality it's usually someone running their mouth (if they really were happy with a quality of life of iView and SBS etc then they would be doing that to start with and wouldn't be on Netflix, right?).
It's really just "refused service at the bottle shop? well guess what I'm not buying any booze today anyway" energy Karen style storm-out antics.
then they would be doing that to start with and wouldn't be on Netflix, right?
I agree, no idea why we have a subscription with Netflix because when I checked here…
https://www.netflix.com/manageaccountaccess
Last access was on 22/01 so as a family we can go weeks without watching anything on Netflix.
I’m just glad I have a Turkish account.
@CrowReally: Why is it 'spite'. Why should a household with 6 people pay the same for Netflix as a household with one person? $20 a month may be good value for that large household, but I don't think it is for a single person. Especially if the only content of interest is maybe a few 8 episode limited series a year. It was better value buying boxed sets. Their movies are by the numbers, which A-lister haven't we got onboard yet, generic action show for a dude, generic romance for a chick, burn churn, then it's here's some more foreign language content from our growth markets. And I hate the lack of filters, I can't even hide shows I've already watched.
@tonka: Weird arguments from some stuff I said a fortnight back, but sure.
The first part of your argument is
Why should a household with 6 people pay the same for Netflix as a household with one person? $20 a month may be good value for that large household, but I don't think it is for a single person.
Which is something that sounds fine on paper, but (like every other service you pay for) you don't get to make the rules you want to agree to. Does a car rego get reduced based on how many seats in your car? Are your council rates more expensive based on how many people are in the house? Do you get a discount on packets of jellybeans if you don't like the black ones? No, no and no.
The second part is
well the movies are shit anyway or generic or forrin
Okay, sure. Guess that means they're free? Or on discount? Of course not. Piss and moan about it all you want, but if you genuinely think the content is awful and box sets are better value then make Netflix really mad with this one weird trick: cancel the service and watch boxsets instead
@CrowReally: Sure there's plenty of discussion to be had, call it weird if you want, I think your opinion is weird, also weird complaining about timing of response, why are you following a thread from 2 weeks ago. Doesn't explain why you would think a consumer making a value based decision is spiteful. Anyway, no not spiteful, no not pissing and moaning. Any reason you're so combative and abrasive about this?
@tonka: I'm probably just too cynical about people who announce they are going to do a thing for a reason when it would have been a lot faster to just do the thing.
You know, "hey everyone, based on what that person said on Twitter, I've decided I'm not going to buy their new product, look at me not buying their stuff, that'll learn em".
I see a lot of people furiously agreeing with each other Netflix isn't worth full price. I don't know if they're trying to convince themselves of the ethics of sharing memberships or outright piracy, but it doesn't seem particularly fruitful to me. If it's a rip-off, why are you paying it/just cancel and move on with your life, etc?
@CrowReally: I commented to defend my right to move on without it being labelled as spite but rather just a measured consumer decision. And often the reasons for the discussion is the same reason as you. Discussion, participation, broadening our understanding of each other to build empathy as a species and all the other nuances I'd love to be able to consider your opinion and add it to my world knowledge. But obviously I'd be a fool to do that when it disparages me.
Same, been paying for Netflix for my family for years now but gonna cancel as soon as this comes in.
That's a bold move.
Time to switch.
Plex anyone
I'm more a Jellyfin type guy.
I moved from having my laptop plugged into the TV to using Jellyfin with Google TV. Such an improvement, I felt like the caveman who discovered fire
I like Plex but it doesn't seem to work very well on my TV with constant lag and freeze frame/frame drops. Running 100/20 NBN with solid connection but not sure why that's the case.
So how does this affect people who watch Netflix during their commute? Lol, it sounds like the service will only work if you watch at your “primary location”. Otherwise if it’s linked to device IP you can simply cast to a Chromecast at someone else’s house or other location? Unless they also check your location via GPS or something?
This is just more profit maximisation by Netflix, nothing new. What customers see as a benefit of using Netflix is actually a leakage on the P&L statement, and Netflix are simply patching up that hole. Other streaming services could possibly follow suit.
Maybe they’ll release a feature where you can watch in multiple “primary locations”, i.e. what you can do right now for free, but expect to pay more, like an entire subscriptions’ worth more.
That’s where the connect to wifi at “home” location once a month kicks in. If the device hasn’t been connected via the registered address it will be blacklisted on that account. Outside of that any location is fine.
If others follow suit I will cancel all my streaming services and just switch on individual services when I know they have something I want to watch, then flick it off again.
This might actually save me a considerable amount of money :)
It should be easy for them to filter out mobile devices simply by removing iOS and Android app usage from the data set.
They'd be insane to not do this already. It'd just make legit users angry.
Maybe they’ll release a feature where you can watch in multiple “primary locations”, i.e. what you can do right now for free, but expect to pay more, like an entire subscriptions’ worth more.
This "feature" is already factored into their announced plans. You will be able to pay an additional fee to add users outside your primary network.
Can You Still Use Netflix While Traveling?
Signing into Netflix outside of your home may lead to the device in use being blocked from Netflix. This could prevent you from signing into new devices while traveling, but Netflix has devised a workaround.
Traveling users who want to use Netflix on a hotel smart TV, company laptop, etc. can request a temporary code from the service when signing in. This will give them access to their account for seven consecutive days.
what happens after 7 days
Let's make it difficult for legitimate users. Easy way to piss off your customers who will just cancel their subs in frustration.
Wow. That’s shit. We’re travelling europe for 4 months at the end of the year. I guess definitely will be cancelling.
Silly question - My Netflix account is via Turkey, is the anti-share check still required? I technically don't have an AU Netflix account anymore for them to be checking.
I'm guessing they'll have your signup IP address recorded (ie your Turkey VPN IP address).
As you're never connecting to Netflix from that IP address, then yes, you'll be caught.
Initial workaround would be to cancel, watch for the remainder of the month, then re-subscribe (through VPN) to renew the 31 day timer.
Ahh.. so the anti-share is being implmented worldwide?
For whatever reason, i thought it was only for specific countries.
It might be initially. But yeah, once they've ironed out the kinks of course it'll be global.
@ESEMCE: What is defined as "HOME" here though, where you are continuously watching or where you signed up from? Can't be IP tracing as people move around and dynamic IPs at play even if the same location
Sayonara Netflix.
What if my systems are all wired…?
I believe they would have some sort of IP recognition system. So regardless of whether your client device is wired or wireless, they would be on the same IP range/subnet/same public IP address.
There's definitely going to be some huge unintended consequences for Netflix here.
With household budgets getting tighter Netflix will be at the top of the cancel list for many.
So professor, without knowing exactly what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack each other's heads open and feast on the goo inside?
^^Snorted laughed out loud at this comment
Yes I would , Kent
Wonder if my devices will fail the tests. I have 3 VLAN's at home where all our devices access NetFlix. I have two different Wi-Fi network SSID's one specifically for the kids devices which has internet filtering, another Wi-Fi network for the wife's and my devices and we use wired Apple TV's on a different network again. All three VLAN's have IPv6 enabled and our ISP uses CG-NAT for IPv4 so we don't have a unique IPv4 address. My ISP assigns a /48 for IPv6 which is a massive amount of address space - 65,536 /64 subnets.
You'd have to assume that they're using IPv4 (it makes no sense to me that they'd be doing by SSID, cause that's just way too easy a hoop to jump through) and that therefore anyone on CGNAT will be fine.
Finally a positive for CGNAT?
I'd say no. CG-NAT means they can only get the ISP name and an approximation of location so would there would be a need to rely on other metrics.
I did the free 'networking for the home' course on Udemy and I still have no idea what you're talking about.
a lot of gibberish that's only on his network side that won't be affected.
Far from gibberish if you actually know what you are doing.
I'm a enterprise network engineer who works from home. My home network is very much not a typical home network.
I'm sharing with my family using a Turkey account. I'm all good for the family to pop over once a month to reset their 31 day limit, but if they consider me overseas here in Australia and want a temporary code once a week I'll just cancel my account and if anyone in the family wants to keep Netflix they can sign up for themselves. For me, it's too expensive locally for what is essentially the Blockbuster throw-out bin of streaming services.
is this going to be implemented world-wide straight away, or few countries at a time?
Worldwide. It has already been rolled out in many countries, so they've have plenty of time to test and establish how this is to work.
well, all my stationary devices (living room, bedroom, guest room) are connected via cable - no wifi at all.
In this world: paying $1000 per year insurance on a wedding ring sounds like a good idea.
In this world: OMG I get hours and hours of content I enjoy watching and paying $10 a month is ridiculous because I ended up disliking this one show that I watched the entirety of.
Does Amazon Prime care if we share?
Not at this stage. I share mine, but it's a max of 2 to 3 simultaneous streams, which cannot be increased.
Read this for more details…
"Amazon Prime Video allows users to stream up to three titles simultaneously from the same account. But only two devices can stream the same movie at once."
I think these restrictions are gonna be a good thing, because I’ll just cancel them all and have so much free time 😂
If Prime Video is part of your usual Amazon Prime will you cancel ?
Netflix think they are losing money by account sharing which has been happening for over 10 years.
It's prob more the fact they keep cancelling shows after 1 season, greenlighting a lot of shovelware and throwing ridiculous amounts of cash at "A-Listers" to go through the motions in Netflix movies.
This will backfire and they'll just keep adding more advertising to the other tiers to make up for the losses.
I watch Netflix now and then, but I've mostly kept my account for family, who don't live with me. Once this gets implemented, it's a great impetus for me to just cancel my account altogether. Just set my family up on Plex instead, everyone wins.
There's nothing they can do to stop password sharing. It's just a scare tactic that will work with a small majority lol 🤣
For those on a Neftlix Turkey/India/Argentina etc account, if the household is all located in one house/primary location in Aus do they still get blocked?
Where it gets paid and where its used is two different things.
If would be good if OZB with a Netflix Argentina account (where they have been trialing this) has had any pings yet and share their experience? Especially with the add member feature for those outside their primary location assuming they use the IP to track back to where the Netflix account is paid. refer to https://thestreamable.com/news/netflix-testing-3-charge-for-…
So I use Netflix at my house and now they want me to pay again to use it at my other home as well.
So, if my son connects his TV to his phone and logs into his Netflix account. Then he visits for Sunday lunch and connects my TV to his phone and logs into his Netflix account …… Will this be enough to keep both TV's connected ?
Netflix info is recorded as follows:
Device used: eg. Samsung TV or Apple IPhone or Web Browser on PC
Profile: eg Dad/Mum/Brother/Sister
Last Watched: eg date and time
Location: ip location based
It will only records your sons account info. The TV is separate
Mobile phones/tablets/laptops are all over the place. They key is point is in the Netflix FAQ If you are away from the Netflix household for an EXTENDED PERIOD of time, you may be occasionally asked to verify your device. We ask you to verify to make sure that the device using the account is authorized to do so. Verifying a device is quick and easy. See “Verifying a device” above for details.
Have to wait and see if this is going to a be royal PIA in the authorizations for outside the area pings.
Netflix allows VPNs which will helps with the same ip location - but lets wait and see how long before Netflix clamps down on that as well.
Looks like Netflix will really start cracking down on password sharing. Many people, myself included, are sharing password with family and/or friends.
I wonder if this password crack down will be beneficial or not for Netflix after all, as I'd expect most people sharing the password are not willing to pay for the full subscription.
So what's the OzBargain community view on this?
…but this one's got a poll
Move to Turkey
sail the seas
Apparently these rules were posted "in error"
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/02/netflix-accide…
“For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru went live in other countries. We have since updated it.”
Nice way to test the market.
They just bunged up the price of the Turkish Netflix again.
Greedy buggers - they had an absolute boom during covid. Maybe that's the problem they can't sustain the growth.
https://about.netflix.com/en/news/an-update-on-sharing
seems like Australia is up in the next few months … NZ is first
This is going to be interesting.
Does this impact the account I pay for in Turkey but use in Australia?
Maybe Turkey will be spared.
I think after the horrible events happening in Turkey now Netflix will not be bothering them for a while.
This is not good. Will have to refund the people sharing my family plan when this is implemented.
Using Netflix less and less nowadays literally only ever had it to watch a movie here and there not into series. In the last few years they have lost so many movies with all the studios and competition building other platforms.
Netflix is now flooded with so many poorly dubbed foreign movies it's almost impossible to find anything decent to watch. I only keep it because both my brother and Mother still use it occasionally.
I have a standard plan for the HD + 2 streams imo shouldn't matter those 2 streams are in different locations because you cannot get HD on a single screen plan, anyway I will be cancelling looking for a service that offers some better quality movies probably will put the cash towards prime and save the rest.
So it looks like all the families that is sharing Netflixs are going to have a WiFi SSID rename :)
You get a primary SSID, you get the same primary SSID, everyone gets a primary SSID!
Nah just kidding, reading the article seems it is more than just WiFi name as claimed.
All this will do is give netflix less paying users. We 'share' netflix, I pay it and they give me money from time to time, so if the others get booted off my account and stop paying, then we will too. So they go from one top tier paid account to no paid account in our case. Not 3 paid accounts like they hope.