Netflix is ready to crack down on password sharing and will begin blocking people from using accounts from unverified devices. Earlier this week, the streaming platform giant announced it would offer a monthly charge to grant access to non-household account members.
The cost is only slightly less than creating your own account but will increase Netflix’s revenue significantly by making the platform completely pay to play. Millions of paid subscribers could be added as Netflix limits accounts to a single household each.
Forbes reported an array of different numbers that could come from blocking password sharers. Research strategist Peter Supino maintains the “buy rating for the stock at a $388 price target, implying an 8 percent upside from Netflix’s $359 share price Wednesday.”
Oppenheimer’s Jason Hefstein estimates eliminating password sharing could raise “targets 8 percent from $415 to $450” with stock increasing more than 25 percent. That would scorch the last report from Netflix this past January.
Oppenheimer polls show roughly 30 percent of streamers at risk of losing Netflix via password sharing would sign up for their own accounts, an estimated nine million Netflix newbies in Canada and the United States alone. If this were to happen, the amount of growth in a likely short amount of time would be nothing short of massive.
Netflix said Tuesday it would begin preventing users from accessing accounts outside their households. I’ve tried logging into my account at a couple of different spots on unapproved devices and have yet to be stopped, but it won’t be long before Netflix’s password sharing ban becomes more strict to encompass all stealth mode subscribers.
The platform has a number of different tiered plans, the cheapest being its ad-supported membership costing $6.99 per month and the most expensive being $19.99.
Are you a password sharer? Will you join the Netflix club or bounce to another platform?