Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing: Why the price spikes could hurt the streaming industry, and why it could killjoy might go up

In the letter to shareholders, it states that they occasionally ask their members to pay a bit more. “Our starting price is extremely competitive with other streamers and at $6.99 per month in the US, for example, it’s much less than the average price of a single movie ticket.”

The Hollywood strikes. Even though the Writers Guild of America struck a deal with studios and script scribes are getting back to work, actors remain on strike, leaving many productions stalled. Love is Blind has seen a rise in popularity on the platform, but for now there is not much else to watch on the platform. But by choking the content pipeline, the actors’ strike could eventually leave the streamer with fewer offerings to lure or retain subscribers. After the actors strike ends, The Wall Street Journal reported that the company might raise prices. If the increases announced Wednesday are a reflection of the price hikes the Journal predicted, the company will have to offer customers more value if it goes up again.

“The cancel reaction continues to be low, exceeding our expectations, and borrower households converting into full paying memberships are demonstrating healthy retention,” Netflix told shareholders. Past password- swappers aren’t quitting the service in disgust, and now has more than 200 million paying subscribers around the world.

Consider the company’s crackdown on password sharing. The long-planned killjoy campaign rolled out in the US and UK in May 2023. It came on the heels of a topsy-turvy time for streaming, when Netflix was facing increased competition from new streamers like Disney+ and HBO Max (now known as Max) and losing subscribers for the first time in a decade. Password sharing was quashed shortly after the streamer pushed its $7 per month ad-supported tier.