Sharing subscriptions will soon also be banned on Disney+ and Prime?

Netflix’s new stance on cross-household account sharing could be a portent of the current culture of amicably shared streaming subscriptions. The question now is: will the competition on Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ soon follow suit, or are they still waiting?

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Sharing streaming accounts has long been a gray area that was easy to live in: Although all Netflix subscribers were fully aware that the provider wanted to limit the use of their subscriptions to one household, the absence of any consequences was a powerful one Wind in the sails of modern day video privateering. Instead of downloading films and series illegally and distributing them on relevant platforms as in the 2010s, Netflix costs were simply reduced by having entire circles of friends and extended families share access. Netflix grudgingly tolerated that for years, but not anymore.

Now the paying customer is king at Netflix – because the streaming pioneer is up to his neck in water. Expensive productions and an estimated hundred million beneficiaries of illegal account sharing have cornered Netflix. Where, on the one hand, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo Di Caprio are hired for in-house productions and many do not pay admission, at the end of the day it just doesn’t add up.

Actually, in the dumping competition for the streaming market with more and more expensive productions and big competitors, the only question that remained was who could hold their breath longer. One thing is clear now: Netflix must first put the thumbscrews on its customers. This will not only bring new subscriptions to the tumbling giant, who has been desperately fighting for a better financial outlook for some time. Some user communities will probably say goodbye collectively and switch to purely advertising-financed offers such as Pluto TV or Amazon’s Freevee. Or stay where accounts can still be shared for the time being.

Amazon triumphs over Netflix – and rows back

While the measures against the sharing of user accounts also arrived in Germany after a longer test phase and some delay, Netflix was already feeling the first open malice from the streaming competition. Amazon Prime Video initially triumphed over Twitter and nonchalantly etched in several languages: Here, users can continue to share their account with everyone who is found worthy of the password. Interestingly, Amazon denied this report to the specialist portal Golem.de with reference to its terms of use and deleted the tweet.

Furthermore, you don’t actually have to look too closely to suspect that the dam failure at Netflix is ​​more likely to be a trigger for major changes in the streaming market than an isolated case. Because if even global corporations like Disney, hung over by the streaming gold rush, have to rethink the marketing strategy for their own content, reduce the number of in-house productions and thin out the subscription offer, other big players at the table are obviously also getting ready for a turning maneuver.

Streaming subscriptions with advertising are just a drop in the bucket

As long as the competition can afford it, they will lie in wait and take a close look at how they do it pioneer Netflix coped with the introduction of a more restrictive customer policy – and only then follow suit. The advent of advertising to paid services in the form of discounted subscriptions with advertising, such as Disney+ and Netflix, cannot and will not in the long term be able to rectify the disparity between the horrendous expenses for original content and the subscription income decimated by multiple use of accounts.

After years of streaming gluttony, sooner or later this should mean moderation for customers. Unless you actually want to pay in full for all services. However, surveys of streaming customers suggest that in most households the pain threshold is reached at the latest with two paid subscriptions.

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