At the end of May, Polish Netflix users received an email announcing that the platform had started fighting password sharing with people outside the home. This ban has been built into the service’s terms of use for years, but at the start of its operation, the world’s most popular streaming service itself encouraged sharing of accounts by relatives.
In June, Polish Netflix subscribers using the Smart TV app were asked to indicate their main home. When they did, access to people living elsewhere was blocked. A Standard Plan user (PLN 43 per month) can purchase access for one person outside the home for PLN 9.99 per month. A person buys a Premium plan (PLN 60) for two people. The additional person must be of legal age and live in Poland.
Canal+ may consider customer complaints
Subscription cannot be purchased for an additional user by people who purchase Netflix through a third party partner. These are pay-TV providers and telecom operators, such as Canal +, UPC Polska, Vectra, Orange Polska. Some have signed or extended contracts with Netflix shown. The start of anti-sharing accounts surprised them. The Competition and Consumer Protection Bureau received two complaints about Netflix’s actions.
A dissatisfied Canal+ customer contacted Wirtualnemedia.pl to request intervention.
– Having Netflix As part of the agreement with Canal +, it is not possible to “select” an additional account to be able to use the platform outside the home. Maybe some of you know about it, I found out today. I suspect this is a problem for anyone who would like to have such an additional account. I was very upset by this fact, because I am ready to pay extra for such an extra user according to the price list. Absent such an possibility, I stayed with Netflix with crumbling jobs (without the ability to watch outside the home, even for an additional fee) until the end of the decade, which is not ideal. Has anyone discovered a solution to this problem? If not, let people who want to extend the contract with Canal + or consider including Netflix in the contract with Canal + pay attention to this fact, note the Canal + subscriber.
What do you recommend Canal + to these subscribers? – Netflix does not allow any partner to sell additional accounts to customers. Please direct the customer who contacted the editorial office to file a complaint to the call center or Canal + showroom. We will try to find a satisfactory solution – informs Wirtualnemedia.pl Piotr Kaniowski, spokesperson for Canal + Polska.
Forum.satkurier.pl users have written in recent weeks in the comments that they managed to disable the Netflix service by filing a complaint before the end of the commitment period. Then they can subscribe to the streaming service themselves and pay for an additional user. Thus, Canal + “goes along” with subscribers who did not believe that Netflix would begin to enforce its regulations.
Poles circumvent the blockade of people outside the house
Polish users have found ways to circumvent the account sharing ban. It does not currently apply to computers or smartphones. So it is possible to share individual products on the big screen using the Chromecast function. Some users install internet browsers on their TVs. After logging in to Netflix, the content can be watched in another home.
Some users access VPN tools for this. Others log into the main farm’s Wi-Fi at least once a month using a mobile device. This is enough to continue using the platform in another home. Netflix has left such a “gateway” for people who live in more than one place, because they are, say, students. In the second quarter of 2023, the period when people outside of the household have had bans in most markets, Netflix gained 6 million new subscribers.
While Netflix is currently the only service that fights so hard against password sharing, that will soon change. In 2024, Disney+ will introduce measures to limit account sharing with people outside of subscribers’ households. We already have the technical capabilities to monitor most of these activities. “I wouldn’t give specific numbers other than to say the issue is important,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said. He stressed that the strategy in this area is a real priority for the company.
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