Streaming giants and cable companies, led by Netflix (NFLX) and HBO (T), are reportedly considering ways to crack down on password sharing among streaming users.
“You’re not scared, are you?” Netflix Co-Founder & First Netflix CEO Marc Randolph told Yahoo Finance’s YFi PM, later adding: “You know there’s abuse and that’s not fair.”
It’s common among streamers to share platform passwords with their friends and family to cut costs and ensure easy accessibility— but Randolph says now the time has come for a crackdown because of what he calls “broad cases of flagrant abuse.” According to a recent research note from MoffettNathanson, about 14% of Netflix users report they are using a password from “someone outside of my household.”
Several measures are being considered to try to stop this from happening, including “requiring customers to change their passwords periodically or texting codes to subscribers’ phones that they would need to enter to keep watching,” according to Bloomberg. And if those tactics don’t work, Bloomberg noted, subscription services may turn to using thumbprints for logging in.
“I don’t think we’re talking about people coming into your apartment and putting you up against the wall and saying: ‘Show us your credentials,’” Randolph said.
Randolph explained that from Netflix’s inception, it was meant to be flexible and easily accessible.
“There’s abuse and that’s not fair,” he said. “But the whole time you want to make it easy for people to be flexible.”
finance.yahoo.com/news/password-sharing-crackdown-netflix-hbo-210830952.html
Netflix co-founder on a potential password sharing crackdown: ‘You’re not scared, are you?’
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