There's been a bit of hubbub about Netflix lately.
In the face of subscription losses, it seems that the trailblazer of streaming services is doubling back towards some rocky terrain. Specifically, rumors are abound that the company is looking into adding an ad-supported tier of service to the platform.
That's aggravating, but not entirely unexpected. Ad-supported streaming services with higher costing ad-free tiers are becoming increasingly common and it was probably inevitable that Netflix would eventually go down that road.
Though, I'm not sure it will have the impact they hope it will.
Personally speaking at least, the range of streaming services out there has given me a decent sample size to gauge the way I approach various options. In particular, I've noticed that I only take the ad-supported option on services that I do not intend to stick around on. The ones that I activate for a few months just to get what I need out of them before canceling.
Currently, this includes Paramount Plus, which I will keep active until "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" reaches its conclusion.
This is in contrast to services like Hulu, which I keep active month after month at a premium tier, even though I barely watch it.
Granted, I would suspend my Hulu account too, but I have family members that utilize it. Which brings us to the next change that Netflix is looking at.
The company may be finally cracking down on account sharing, which allows multiple people to maintain profiles on a single paid account. This feature was intended to be used so that members of the same household could keep their profiles separate. However, kids moving out quickly discover that their parent's Netflix password works just as well in their new home as it did in their old one.
Technically, sharing your account with people outside of your household has always been against Netflix's policy, but any enforcement mechanism was likely considered to be more trouble than it would be worth. At least until now.
After reporting a 200,000 subscriber loss last quarter, it appears Netflix may crack down on shared accounts as a way to encourage more individual users to purchase subscriptions of their own. Or, at the very least, they may implement features that allow you to pay a surcharge to allow users outside of the primary household.
Again, I'm not sure that this will result in positive numbers for Netflix.
In basic terms, these policies will tank Netflix's value proposition. Already on the more expensive side of the streaming world, a big part of how I justify the price of Netflix every month is that it is used by people other than myself. The value of the service is currently worth the price I pay.
If Netflix cracks down on account sharing, or raises the price even more, then that equation changes. And with so many other services out there competing for my attention, I doubt I would even miss it. Right now I'm paying nearly $200 a year on Netflix simply because I leave the subscription running. I actually didn't even realize that until I looked it up for this column.
Netflix is pushing the limit of its value proposition at that price. Any more and I'll go from spending $200 a year to spending $30 for a couple months when the next season of "The Witcher" comes around.
I'm not sure that's the outcome Netflix is hoping for, but it's the one they're going to get. Which is a shame. Netflix has always been an innovator in the industry. They've always been able to maneuver themselves ahead of the game to become the next big thing before anybody realizes what the next big thing is going to be.
These policies feel like a step backward. Netflix should be trying to gain new ground, not reclaim lost ground.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and thinks that more Hulu might be in his future.
