Netflix sharing crackdown rolls on with new profile transfer tool

[Shawn Knight]

In a nutshell: Netflix is rolling out a new feature designed to make it easier for users to transfer their profiles to standalone accounts. Profile Transfer is designed for secondary users – as in, not the primary account holder that pays for the service. When leveraging the tool, these users will be able to transfer their profile including viewing history, personalized recommendations, saved games and other custom settings to their own membership.

Netflix presented the feature in the guise of a tool that will be handy when life happens, like when people move, families grow or relationships end. While those are all valid use cases, Netflix is no doubt more interested in using it as a cog in its initiative to crack down on rampant password sharing. According to a survey from Leichtman Research Group, a third of US households that subscribe to Netflix participate in some form of password sharing.

It has been a rough year for the world's largest video streaming provider but executives are determined to right the ship and deliver additional value to shareholders. After losing subscribers for the first time in a decade, Netflix set about to identify the issue and come up with some solutions. They have been testing multiple options in countries like Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic and are seemingly preparing them for wider adoption.

The biggest of these initiatives lands next month in the form of an ad-supported tier.

The Basic with Ads tier will include an average of 4-5 minutes of ads per hour comprised of 15- and 30-second clips that play before and during shows and films. Video quality will be capped at 720p and due to licensing restrictions, not all content will be available to stream in all regions. Furthermore, users will not have the ability to download content for offline viewing.

Basic with Ads starts at $6.99 from November 3 and will be available initially in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the UK and the US.

Profile Transfer is rolling out to all members starting today. To get started, simply select the Transfer Profile option when hovering over your profile icon in the drop down menu on the Netflix homepage.

Image credit: Viktor Theo

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96358-netflix-sharing-crackdown-rolls-new-profile-transfer-tool.html

 

[Revolution 11]

If Netflix thinks that raising prices (and forcing secondary accounts to pay for the privilege is a price hike) is the smart thing to do in a recession, get ready for even bigger drops in subscriber counts.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Cant wait for the bigger tool to arrive: the google search "how to drop my netflix subscription".

We're in a recession. It doesnt matter if some big name economists change definitions and use new words, we are in a recession. People are cutting costs to make ends meet, and its only going to get a lot worse.

 

[hwertz]

I remember when Netflix had an ad-supported tier (maybe this was Hulu?). $0 a month. And it actually was pretty sweet, their ad system back then ACTUALLY figured out what ads you want (it had a "was this ad relevant to you? Yes/no" at the end of each ad, and also seemed to measure if you attempted to skip it. You couldn't skip it but I think it measured if you started clicking the disabled fast forward and such. So it quit giving me feminine hygiene ads and like medications for older people and such first, started giving me more car and technology ads next, and eventually even figured out I don't like Hondas and quit advertising them. )

 

[human7]

I don't blame Netflix for doing this, but I do blame the whole streaming industry for being so fragmented. If most of the content was still on Netflix, it wouldn't be that big of a deal for them to do this. Unfortunately, that's not the case, and piracy is on the rise again.

 

[hwertz]

I don't blame Netflix for doing this, but I do blame the whole streaming industry for being so fragmented. If most of the content was still on Netflix, it wouldn't be that big of a deal for them to do this. Unfortunately, that's not the case, and piracy is on the rise again.

Agreed. I read Japan had this problem, like every channel had it's streaming service, many people did not care for the choice of signing up for a bunch of services or signing up for one and only having a fraction of the stuff they want to watch on there. The industry there came up with a solution where they keep shows exclusive for 1 year, after that everyone gets them. This still rewards channels for making the best new shows, they get people to sign up for their streaming service if they want to see a show right away. But the streaming services divide a MUCH larger pie, almost everyone is happy to sign up for 1 service (or maybe 2 if they have 2 must see shows).

I'm in that boat, I've seen Netflix and Hulu and was not impressed, I'd be like "lets watch this.. not on there.. let's watch this... oh, they only have season 5 and 6... ok lets watch this.. nope." The price on these services is fine but I'm not about to sign up for like $50 worth of them just to have a reasonable chance of having what I'd like to watch actually on there.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

We're in a recession. It doesnt matter if some big name economists change definitions and use new words, we are in a recession. People are cutting costs to make ends meet, and its only going to get a lot worse.

I agree that we’re in a recession, but don’t let that fool you. Streaming services won’t be affected too much by it. Even Netflix is still affordable compared to paying for television, and consumers have some stupid behaviors during times of economic strife. For instance, the pizza industry does fantastic during recessions and you can bet that doesn’t save consumers money compared to grocery shopping.