Do you share your Netflix password with others? Maybe trade a Netflix for a HBO GO password? Or do you split the cost with a family member? Well Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says that is OK with him.
“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.”
“As kids move on in their life, they like to have control of their life, and as they have an income, we see them separately subscribe,” Hastings told reporters at CES. “It really hasn’t been a problem.”
HBO CEO Richard Plepler also seems OK with password sharing but for a different reason when he talked about it back in April 2015.
“We look at it very carefully,” Plepler said in an interview with CNNMoney, but “right now password sharing is just simply not a big number.”
“Should it become a big number, we will deal with it,” he added. “We will change the number of concurrent streams that are available. But right now, the number really isn’t significant.”
“As long as it remains de minimis, we’re not going to overreact to it,” he said.
At what point does it become a big enough issue to force companies like HBO or Netflix to address it? Only time will tell, but as with piracy as soon as it becomes a big enough issue to hurt their profit you should expect them to quickly crack down on it.
Source: Tech Crunch
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