Netflix’s new password-sharing block appears to have achieved the desired effect, much to the displeasure of millions of members.
The policy, which is intended to restrict viewers from sharing their accounts with individuals outside their homes, has resulted in the streaming service experiencing its highest increase in new subscribers in four years.
According to a third-party tracker, Netflix gained more new subscribers in the four days immediately following the start of its password-sharing crackdown in the US than in any similar period since 2019. The numbers will likely signal to the company that it made the right decision and could convince competing streaming services to follow suit.
Netflix tracks each subscriber’s main household account behavior, device IDs, and IP addresses. Adding a new user who doesn’t share the account holder’s IP address now costs $7.99 a month in the US and £4.99 in the UK. Subscribers to the service’s premium 4K tier can add two extra users.
Furthermore, Netflix now requires subscribers to log in once a month from their homes. To stream while traveling, the business recommends that account holders log in from home right before departing. There doesn’t appear to be a method to continue viewing Netflix after being gone for more than 31 days.
Data from streaming analytics company Antenna shows an average of around 73,000 new daily subscriptions in the US between May 25 and May 28, a larger spike than any since the company’s records began in 2019.
A surge in cancellations also followed the crackdown, but the increase in signups significantly outweighed it.
Netflix’s stock price jumped by around 10 percent during the period and has since climbed significantly. The only other massive subscription spike Antenna recorded was between May and April 2020, soon after the pandemic lockdowns started.
