Fact: So many people can share accounts
+ Netflix – 5 profiles (2 viewers at a time in the standard subscription).
+ Disney+ – 7 profiles per subscription.
+ HBO Max – 5 profiles.
+ C More – 2 devices at the same time (standard subscription).
+ Viaplay – 6 profiles (2 streams simultaneously).
+ Discovery+ – 2 devices at the same time.
+ Amazon Prime Video – 6 profiles.
+ Apple TV+ – 5 profiles.
These days, Swedish Netflix users receive an email from the streaming service that introduces the concept of “profile transfer”.
Netflix says it wants to make it easier for several users who have a joint account to share – and thus pay for their own subscription.
“People move. Families grow. Relationships change. Life goes on and a profile transfer can make these changes a little easier,” Netflix writes to its Swedish subscribers.
“The Profile Transfer feature allows people using your account to transfer a profile—including recommendations, streaming activity, ‘My List’, settings, saved games, and more—to a subscription they’re paying for,” Netflix writes.
100 million free viewers
That sounds nice. But behind the concept of “profile transfer” lies an increased ambition from Netflix to get users to stop sharing accounts with each other. In Sweden, each Netflix account is linked to a household where it is allowed to create five different profiles “for different members of the household”.
Netflix defines a household as someone who lives together, but it’s very common for friends and acquaintances to share accounts or for out-of-town kids to watch their parents’ accounts.
Netflix has 223 million subscribers worldwide, but the company itself expects that another 100 million people watch, for example, “The crown” or the series about the mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer on someone else’s account – and thus become a parasite in Netflix’s eyes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The “profile transfer” campaign is one of several attempts to get subscribers to stop sharing accounts. In other countries, Netflix has asked users to confirm their identity using text messages. In the US, the company plans to increase prices for households that share the subscription outside the household starting next year.
— If you have a sister who we can say lives in another city and you want to share Netflix with her, great! But we’re going to ask you to pay a little more so that she gets the value of the service, but we also get the value of the revenue associated with what she’s watching, Netflix Chief Operating Officer Greg Peters said when the plan was launched in April, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Does not grow
Until a few years ago, Netflix didn’t put much effort into chasing those who shared their accounts. On the contrary, it was seen as a way to spread the brand and to attract new users.
The reason for Netflix’s new hard line is that the company is no longer growing as fast as before, which threatens profitability and the stock price. The number of users in the US and Europe is basically stagnant, no new ones are added, and most people who start subscribing to Netflix now come from Asia.
Netflix has another way of attracting users. In early November, the company will offer a new service with advertising, alongside the regular Netflix subscription. But that service will so far only be available in twelve countries and not in Sweden.
The streaming giant has not said if and when advertising Netflix will come here.
TT has applied for Swedish Netflix, but the company declines to comment.