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It has been a rough year for Netflix, and its only February.
The streaming service has sparked outrage from users across the globe with their new policies aimed at limiting account sharing among its subscribers. For the hosts of the Australia based podcast The Weekly Planet, the move by the company shows how oblivious they are to the current streaming market.
“Quite frankly, Netflix isn’t good enough for this,” said co-host James Clement. “They should learn a lesson from Blockbuster, the company they killed, (about) outdated practices.”
The new rules posted on January 31 had several complicated hoops subscribers had to jump through if they hoped to stream Netflix outside of their house. Despite the company claiming the restrictions were only for a handful of Latin American countries, Netflix has since released similar guidelines for users in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.
“The top brass at Netflix are somehow not aware that the only reason a lot of people use Netflix is that it is slightly easier than pirating,” said co-host Nick Mason. “As soon as it isn’t, people will stop using it.”
Once proud of its password sharing users, Netflix has shifted its tone over the past few years. While other streaming services put account sharing restrictions in place from the beginning, Netflix encouraged the practice and even called it good marketing back in 2016. Now, the company is determined to push ahead with stricter rules and additional fees for users who share their accounts with those outside their household.
“If they roll this out, I hope this kills Netflix,” said Clements. “Just as a lesson to everybody.”
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“The last thing I watched on Netflix was Glass Onion, and that was weeks ago,” said Mason.
Listen to The Weekly Planet for more conversations around movies, comic books, and TV shows. The most recent episode, “DCU Slate Reveal & Knock At The Cabin (with Michelle Brasier)” has around two and a half hours of entertaining discussions ready to go. Find them on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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