Netflix saw a spike in subscribers in the days following its
password-sharing crackdown in the US.
Well, this might not come
as a surprise, but Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown already appears to
be working in the US. According to the data analytics company Antenna (via
The Wall Street Journal), Netflix saw a huge spike in subscribers in the
four days after it notified users about its paid sharing policies on May
23rd.
While average daily signups rose to 73,000 during this window,
marking a 102 percent increase over Netflix’s previous 60-day average,
Antenna says the streamer also added 100,000 subscribers on both May 26th
and May 27th. That’s more subscribers than Netflix raked in once the
covid-related lockdowns went into effect in March and April 2020, according
to Antenna.
Average daily Sign-ups to Netflix reached 73k during that period, a +102% increase from the prior 60-day average. These exceed the spikes in Sign-ups Antenna observed during the initial U.S. Covid-19 lockdowns in March and April 2020. https://t.co/2CNU67kQST
— Antenna (@AntennaData) June 9, 2023
Netflix’s new password-sharing policies ask subscribers to pay
an extra $7.99 per month to share their account with up to two people who
live outside their household. Even though Netflix has warned investors about
a “cancel reaction” that could occur in response to the change, Antenna says
there were still more signups than cancellations in the period it
tracked.
In February, Netflix rolled out paid sharing in several
countries outside the US, including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and
Spain. As a result of the crackdown, the company said during its most recent
earnings call that its subscriber base in Canada is “now growing faster than
in the US.”
It’s still too early to tell how big of an effect
Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown has had in the US just yet, and we’ll
likely hear more about how it’s going when Netflix reports its earnings
result next month. Here at The Verge, we’re already seeing a mixed reaction
in response to Netflix’s crackdown. While my partner canceled the
subscription we share with his family in another state, one of my colleagues
paid extra to add family members to their account.
