Am I missing something? You quote the CEO saying it's fine to share account within the household and eventually the kids will grow up and get their own accounts when making money and moving. How does it differ from Netflix now saying that you're not allowed to share your account with people OUTSIDE of a household unless paying for it?
Yes, you're missing something: the CEO said, quote, "we love people sharing Netflix". There's no plausible interpretation where they're referring to people living under one roof, because of course those people can share the account. That's why they have profiles in the first place. Additionally, their premium plan includes "download on 6 devices". They didn't intend that for the average person who has 6 Netflix-capable devices themselves, as most people have far fewer.
No, the only viable interpretation of their account setup is that it's explicitly designed for several people to use a single account. That means the "several family members in one house" setup is the baseline, and "people sharing Netflix" couldn't reasonably mean "...with their spouse and kids living with them.
You're making assumptions with no context. This is how TechCrunch cites it:
> “We love people sharing Netflix whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch,,” Hastings said. “That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.” To illustrate this example, he spoke of how a parent may share their login with their child. And when that child grows up, they will usually subscribe to Netflix, too.
Unless the couch is spanning multiple households, I don't see evidence for the claim. His keynote makes no mention of this so I assume it's mentioned somewhere else but I can't find the source. The CNET site is truly garbage.
Regarding 6 devices, that's nothing today, even considering an average family with two kids. Everyone will have their own phone so that's four. Then you'll have multiple TVs, computers, and possibly one or two tablets. My family of three (one kid), have 10 devices and I don't see that as out of the norm.
Regarding your last paragraph: I agree, and that bolsters my point. Intra-household sharing is baked into their account design, so of course Netflix supports and encourages that. There'd be no need for anyone to ask their CEO if they support intra-household sharing, or him to state that they do. It's a given. That strengthens the argument that he must have been referring to sharing between households when he said "we love people sharing Netflix". Otherwise the question, and his response, would be vacuously true.
That is silly though. There was never an expectation that only 1 set of eyeballs would watch a stream.
Netflix tweeted in 2017 that “Love is sharing a password”. There is no other way to read that statement other than being pro sharing. Which makes sense, I pay for X concurrent streams. Let me use my streams, period.
I don’t think anyone is saying they can’t change their mind, just that it might have consequences. They leaned on password sharing to grow their base and once they are on top, they shut it down. I’ve paid for the 4 stream 4k since it’s release. I share it my mom and brother. Combine we all watch it less than 10 hrs a month. It’s is not worth its cost for any one of us to have an account. The moment I get that password email, I will cancel.
You summed up my position perfectly. Netflix is free to change their mind. I'm free to re-evaluate my relationship with them in the context of the new, much less valuable plan.
