Summary
- Netflix is cracking down on password-sharing to account for lost revenue, with subscribers possibly facing ads in the future.
- The company will stop reporting subscriber numbers in 2025, leading to speculation about its financial health and growth.
- Netflix is also eliminating its basic ad-free plan in favor of tiered offerings, potentially risking viewer backlash.
Long before the height of streaming, Netflix established itself as one of the pioneers of the industry. While there is now an abundance of service providers to choose from, the company has remained one of the go-to streaming options, but not just for its content. Password-sharing between friends and family had become a common practice among Netflix subscribers, if only to save a few extra bucks. Ultimately, the streaming giant dropped the hammer on sharing, and some believe Netflix may now be paying the price.
According to Eurogamer, Netflix will not share its subscriber numbers with the public moving forward. Co-CEO Greg Peters says that the change comes after the company’s business model evolved — now that password sharing has been banned, Netflix is beginning to account for revenue and advertising stemming from the inevitable change in subscribers. With fewer people sharing accounts, the company presumably has income from new sign-ups to account for while making calculations.
Is Netflix hiding sliding subscriber numbers?
While subscriber numbers will not be shared with the public, investors are still expected to be informed when there is growth or a milestone is reached. Per the last update from the company, Netflix had more than 296 million subscribers. Peters told the source that measuring its success based on such numbers now is “historical,” however.
Whether Netflix is being negatively impacted by its password-sharing crackdown has not been determined, and we may never know if the company withholds its statistics. That being said, this isn’t the only move Netflix is making to drive revenue — it still seems to be going hard on advertisements, too. At the end of 2023, the company announced plans to eliminate its basic ad-free tier in regions where ad-supported tiers are available to subscribers. In recent months, Netflix has notably broken down its offerings according to its plan options for customers — the more you’re willing to pay, the larger the number of perks, such as HD streaming. With viewers experiencing streaming fatigue, however, there is plenty of room for these moves to backfire on Netflix.
