Apparently, quantity over quality doesn’t work. Who would’ve thought? Oh, people also don’t want to pay more when they already paid to use the app and its services.
Netflix has enjoyed being a forerunner in the streaming service industry, being no.1 for such a long period. These days, the company is struggling to keep that position due to a series of terrible decisions.
Around April and July this year, the service’s subscriber count has consistently declined. More and more people started leaving as other competitors provide a more flexible option at a cheaper or similar cost. The firm’s chief executive, Reed Hastings said: “If there was a single thing, we might say Stranger Things.”
Stranger Things Season 4 is a huge success on the platform and also helped in bringing more subscribers. Although that show couldn’t carry Netflix all on its own and the decline in subscriber count continued.
The first time this happened was back in 2011, years before the COVID-19 pandemic. This downfall has led to a considerable number of job cuts and a sharp drop in the company’s share price.
Recently as well, the company is now completely removing the password-sharing feature. Instead of letting you use your devices anywhere freely, now you apparently have to pay just so you can use Netflix outside of your home. And no, they aren’t thinking twice about its side effects. Desperate, Netflix calls this “feature” Extra Home.
This feature is going to be available first in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras starting 22nd August.
“Beginning August 22, 2022, if your Netflix account is being used on a TV outside of your home, you will need to pay an extra $2.99 per month for each extra home. You will only be charged when you or someone who uses your account chooses to add an extra home – this fee will NOT be automatically charged.” Netflix said on its Honduras website.
The basic plan only allows you to download on one phone and one account at a time. If you wanted to use Netflix on more devices, you either upgrade or pay an extra USD 2.99 equivalent for each extra device. This is the basic premise of Extra Home. There is a very high chance this feature would also be available in the Philippines.
For the worldwide rollout, Netflix is yet to decide whether to use a single fee, offer users a choice between the extra home and extra member fees, or other options.
Netflix has also told that you can still watch on Netflix outside of your home for up to two weeks so as long the account has not been logged in in that other location. It’s only allowed once per year.
If you don’t subscribe to Extra Home and you logged in to Netflix outside of the account’s original location, then your access will be blocked unless you pay first. To determine that the account is used outside of its original log-in location, it collects certain important information such as IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity. VPNs can’t save you this time since those use a different IP address.
Netflix also adds the option to sign out at a specific location. Doing so logs you out of all devices within this shared location. For example, if an account is signed in at Luneta Park, then that account in every device that’s located within Luneta Park will also be logged out unless you pay for Extra Home.
If Netflix wants to die out, then adding more subscription options is truly the way to do it.
Sources: BBC, arstechnica