Netflix’s dilemma: 60% of its users in Spain share an account… and they would leave the platform if they couldn’t

Netflix has declared war on shared accounts. That its first (but not last) drop in subscribers in a decade occurred a few months ago set off alarm bells, and that led to a series of notable measures. The most relevant: the implementation of a plan with ads and, above all, the end of shared accounts. That second decision can bring tail.

Millions of users do not pay. According to the latest Netflix data, the platform has 223 million subscribers, but 100 million of them use the service without paying. The reason? Shared accounts.

Shared accounts to gogó. A recent study de Barlovento Comunicación gives an idea of ​​how the panorama of shared accounts is in our country. In the survey of more than 2,000 people, 61.3% acknowledged sharing an account on Netflix.

Disney+ follows it in that ranking with 55.7%, while HBO (47.9%) ranks third with the most users sharing an account. Amazon Prime Video (31%), Apple TV+ (29.5%), Filmin (28.9%) and Movistar+ (24.9%) have lower figures

What if we remove shared accounts? Even more interesting than those percentages was the answer to that question that they asked the respondents. The answer was clear: practically two out of three users subscribed to these platforms would abandon them if they cannot share an account.

On Netflix, the percentage was somewhat lower (58.7%), but in that line were Amazon Prime Video (64.1% would leave it), HBO Max (63.7%), Disney+ (66.8%), or Movistar+ (65.9%).

I (slightly) prefer my own subscription to paying extra. In the event that it is not possible to share an account, users usually have a slight preference for having their own account over paying an extra to be able to continue sharing the “usual” account. Ad-supported accounts are also an option, but the least relevant to respondents.

Own elaboration. Source: Windward Communication.

We’ll see if the accounts come out. If Netflix makes that decision, it will be with data that reveals that it can be good for its business, but not even this nor others surveys they give data that is too promising for the platforms. At the moment, Netflix’s plan with ads -which has just landed in Spain- is coming out regularly, and the movements to persecute shared accounts -such as expelling whoever you like from yours or transferring profiles- are only the prelude of what is to come.

In 2023 goodbye to shared accounts. What is certain is that this will be the year in which Netflix will expand its measures to eliminate non-legitimate shared accounts.

Reed Hastings resigns. The co-founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings, announced a few hours ago his resignation as coCEO of the company. In the financial results of the last quarter of 2022, the company managed to gain 7.66 million subscribers, but now a hard time is coming.

“Cancellation reaction”. hastings commented how the new shared account policy will cause some “cancellation reaction” in the markets, but that the long-term benefits of people paying for additional accounts will end up resulting in better overall revenue. He did not give details about the implementation of the policy, but he did comment that it will be implemented “later in this first quarter.”

Picture: dima solomin