Netflix’s password-sharing policies have drawn criticism from customers, but the company’s strategy seems to be working.
Antenna, a research company, recently released a report claiming that on May 26 and 27, only days after the streaming giant informed its U.S. subscribers that it had started to crack down on password sharing, Netflix saw an increase of roughly 100,000 daily sign-ups.
The company began charging password sharers $7.99 a month for an additional membership for individuals living outside of a member’s household on May 23, the company informed customers.
The streaming giant introduced password-sharing policies outside of the United States in February, including in Canada, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal.
Average Daily Users Sign-Ups on Netflix
Antenna discovered that during the announcement period, the average daily sign-ups for the streaming service increased by 102% from the prior 60-day average to 73,000 sign-ups per day on average.
Notably, the number was higher than the entire number of Netflix sign-ups that Antenna had recorded throughout the first Covid lockdowns.
Since the news on May 23, there have been other cancellations on streaming giant as well. The business anticipated these outcomes because it thought the setback would only last a short while.
However, according to Antenna, the number of cancellations was insufficient to balance the number of sign-ups. In comparison to the previous 60 days, there was a 25.6% increase in the sign-up to cancellation ratio.
Time will tell how severe Netflix’s crackdown on password-sharing will be in the United States, but the preliminary results seem encouraging.
According to a prior estimate by Netflix, over 100 million households worldwide—including 30 million in the United States and Canada—share their accounts with others.
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