Repression is about to get worse

It’s been about 18 months since Netflix began enforcing its ban on password sharing, and the move proved very profitable for the company. While some subscribers canceled their accounts in anger after the streamer announced the measures, many others chose to keep their Netflix subscriptions.

In June 2023, I told you Netflix wouldn’t do anything to you while enforcing its ban on sharing passwords. No one had to worry about being blocked or banned. Instead you get Netflix Household Verification Requests from time to time. You then have 15 minutes to complete checks regarding people outside your household sharing your passwords.

Netflix has now stepped up its game when it comes to enforcing household verification controls in a bid to further punish people who share their passwords. Netflix appears to be much more aggressive in its controls, making it almost impossible to share passwords outside of your household.

In the 18 months since I first made changes to my Netflix household, Netflix has continued to send verification requests. These messages would appear on TVs and other devices and require me to click a button in an email to confirm that the gadgets were part of the same household.

Everything worked very well without any problems. Sometimes the checks arrived every two weeks, and other times they were much rarer.

There was even a point where I thought Netflix had stopped checking or it didn’t matter anymore. After all, Netflix added millions of new customers after banning password sharing, so there could no longer be as many people using the same account from two different locations. This is essentially what households come down to.

Another reason why checks are less frequent could relate to actual account usage. Maybe people were accessing the account less frequently than before.

Anyway, it’s been a while since I received multiple requests to check my Netflix household on the same day. But something unusual happened the moment Disney began enforcing its own password-sharing ban: Netflix got more aggressive.

Let’s say User A and User B used the same Netflix connection simultaneously from two different addresses a few weeks ago. User A received a notification to check housekeeping, which I helped with, expecting it to be a normal check. As soon as I did this, User B received a verification prompt. It was new. I checked housekeeping again and guess what happened next? User A was kicked out and Netflix requested another review.

Do this several times and you’ll end up with at least some devices disconnected from the account. Again, I haven’t seen this happen in the previous 18 months.

Plus, it’s definitely not the kind of Netflix password sharing experience you want. It would still work if you wanted it to. You can schedule your access to Netflix to avoid being online on the same account from two different locations. But who wants to bother with that?

This is also the first time I’ve seen Netflix be this aggressive. I joked that as we approach the end of 2024, Netflix is ​​trying to improve its December quarter finances by signing up more subscribers. I imagine other users have faced similar scenarios over the past few weeks.

Concerning subscribers, Netflix had 282.7 million customers at the end of the September quarter, compared to 260.38 million subscribers at the end of 2023. Interestingly, Netflix attracted 30 million new customers in 2023, the year it announced the ban password sharing and started implementing it.

So what did I do when Netflix started cracking down even harder? Nothing. I didn’t cancel Netflix. I accepted it. I understand why Netflix does it, and I know that’s how things should work. If you want to stream Netflix, you have to pay.

You can easily get a new Netflix account. The cheapest ad-based tier is still relatively affordable. This is probably the account Netflix wants you to get in the first place. Ads can benefit even more from its results than a more expensive subscription, depending on how much you watch.

Additionally, ad-based tiers are becoming more popular on streaming services. Disney’s Bob Iger revealed recently, around 30% of Disney+ global subscribers are at the advertising level. It’s approximately 37 million accounts.

Netflix, meanwhile, recently reported 70 million monthly users at the advertising level. This is almost double the 40 million mark reached in May.