Frustration ratcheted up a notch yesterday as Netflix’s new policy went into effect prohibiting the sharing of passwords across multiple addresses.
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“It annoys me! It’s been several years that it’s okay that we share our account with the family and there, it’s going to block me from my home…” indignant Laurie Wilmot, nursing student.
It was yesterday that Netflix implemented its new policy.
The online content platform has decided to limit access to its platform to residents of the same address.
Members of the same family or friends can therefore no longer share the platform subscription fees free of charge, as many of them did.
Half of Quebecers are subscribers to the American platform, according to the Academy of Digital Transformation at Laval University.
The straw that broke the camel
Although she says she is frustrated by the change, Ms.me Wilmot “made a deal» with his family: his mom will pay more so that everyone can have access to the Netflix account.
But this is not the case for several other Quebecers met by The newspaper. For them, the value for money is no longer so attractive and the decision of the digital juggernaut is a bit of a straw.
“I sometimes lent the subscription to my grand-nephew who has less financial means so that he could watch the snowmen, but I will no longer be able to do so”, laments Sébastien Bouffard, a resident of the LaSalle borough.
“I said to myself: ‘No, it’s over Netflix for me,'” slices the man, who has unsubscribed.
Circumvention strategies
“It’s not worth paying for a year if you don’t watch every night,” said Binta D., a student.
The future optician shared her account with her cousin. For the time being, she will not pay the additional 8 dollars to continue to have access to Netflix.
His strategy: subscribe for a month then unsubscribe, or find the series and films that interest him on other platforms or sites.
Philippe V. is also of this opinion. According to him, you can easily find Netflix content elsewhere.
He shares his account with his brother and is going to try his hand at continuing to do so using a scheme. If it’s too complicated, they will unsubscribe and remain loyal to competing platforms, without much qualms.
When Netflix entered the Canadian market in 2010, you could subscribe for $7.99 per month, with no restrictions on the number of users, devices or addresses.
As the popularity of the site grew, the rates also gradually increased.
To be a family on the same account, possibly at two or even three different addresses, it now costs between $17 and $35.
With 230 million subscribers worldwide, Netflix generated no less than CA$42.5 billion in revenue last year. Its profits reached CA$6 billion.
– In collaboration with Francis Halin
The Consumer Protection Office, responsible for the matter, had not received any complaints in connection with this announcement at the time of writing these lines.