Part of the issue of course is that it was "the first of it's kind" ... Netflix was sort of synonymous with streaming for quite a while. But now that other content creators are creating their own streaming platforms... it's inevitable that it's going to lose market share.

Amazon just bought a mega studio that has a ton of content too, so that makes it a lot more attractive

Pulling out of Russia, password sharing and the price hike will be affecting all subscription services surely, why highlight Netflix?

Yes and it's MGM which means they now own Stargate! :omgno:. They would be mad not to do something with the franchise, it still has massive potential and a huge cult fan base. My personal preference would be to keep the OG series as canon of course, rather than a full reboot... but I'd accept a reboot if done well. The best of SG was really when humans were the scrappy underdogs taking on advanced aliens with their comparatively primitive equipment, their only "futuristic tech" being the gate itself which they knew how to use but didn't fully understand.

They eventually had their own starships and by the end the Asgardians (who went extinct) had gifted them all of their technology. 'twas a different show then, more star-trekky with humans being a powerful race in the galaxy.

Anyway... yes... Stargate content pls Amazon :laugh:.

also I don't know how they can clamp down on Password sharing anyway, if you're paying for 5 users at once for example, why can't 5 different people use it?

Netflix is struggling... I don't know if others have pulled out of Russia, but then they might not have as big a presence to begin with. Also none have hiked prices as significantly as Netflix. the Disney+ sub went up quite a bit but it's still not hugely expensive at £8, it has a tonne of content it didn't have at the start, and it was only cheaper before as a sort of "introductory price" while it got off the ground. Netflix "full" (4k) prices are a whopping £16 a month in comparison. Amazon Prime is also £8 a month, and that's for Prime Delivery as well. Even the cheaper non-4k Netflix package is £11.

Password sharing I think is a bit of a red herring really - there's no guarantee that people who are sharing passwords around would actually be paying for it otherwise... you can't project that into any actual figures. A lot of students probably do it for example - continue using the family's Netflix account after moving away from home... which in all honesty I think should be allowed (so long as they're in uni halls etc.)... but it might be more sensible to introduce a "student offer" of say £4.99 a month. Amazon has this for example.

they have clamped down on vpn usage, i know that :fist: So im guessing they will just expand that side of it

How would they clamp down on it though? If you're paying for a certain amount of screens why can't that many people use it? What even are the rules anyway? Are you all supposed to be living in the same house or is it limited to family members? Like my step son uses ours but he doesn't live with us, is that allowed or not? I'm paying extra so he can use it though so what's the point in clamping down? If they stopped him from using it, he wouldn't pay for it himself and I'd pay for a smaller package (or just leave) so they'd be shooting themselves in the foot anyway

To be fair, if everyone did that it would make the effective price of the standard package £2/month per household... there's no way that would be sustainable :joker:

You're allowed to use it out of the house though, that's sort of part of the appeal. They could perhaps flag if people are frequently using it from two different IP locations and it's obviously two different households. However if the non-main-households only use mobile data for example, there's no way to flag that really. They can't possibly know it isn't a household member.

My Step son uses it on his phone anyway because he doesn't even have a TV so we'll be grand :fan:

Technically it's supposed to just be for people living at the registered address. That doesn't mean it can only be used at that address, just that it's supposed to be user's permanent residence.

From a quick google, the "clamping down" idea seems to be that they might introduce 2-factor authentication, i.e. you'll have to verify a code or whatever sent by email/text when you log in. To be honest I don't see that being a huge deterrent. So long as people don't log out it'll still work just the same. They're not going to start requiring authentication every time you boot up Netflix... it would be too inconvenient and people would get fed up with it. It'll at most be on log in and maybe a random "check" every few months.

But 5 people are allowed watch at one time, so it is effectively that price per person anyway

i think there will be cases where 10 or more people are streaming the same account simultaneously from different ip addresses. Thats who they are after. By stopping vpn masking they can identify that type of abuse much easier. I dont really think they are after family members

It's more the connection than the device, if his phone is connected to wireless they can still see a rough location of where the device is (not exact, but down to the town/city). On mobile data (4g/5g) it usually just shows the network like EE/Three or whatever so they have no idea where in the UK you are.

The biggest package is actually 4 "screens" at once so you couldn't have 10... but I agree it's more entire households sharing they're looking for rather than a family sharing with a grown-up kid or being logged in at Gran's house. You could in those cases have 4 entire families using the same Netflix account, so long as it was only logged in on the main telly.

It would probably just say we're both in Cork anyway (if that, sometimes I look up Netflix at work and when I go into the streamed from section on Netflix it says I was streaming from a different county altogether)

Yes you're right, it's 4 screens, I thought it was 5

I doubt they're ever going to properly crack down on it to be fair, you might just get an occasional call from him asking for the two-factor verification code. They'll be soft measures whatever they are. It's not illegal, just a T&C's violation, and it's a rolling monthly sub :shrug:. Literally nothing they can do really. Cancelling your account means nothing on a rolling subscription, you can just sign up again the following month :joker:.

Yeah true plus like I said they would only lose money that they're getting anyway if they stopped him using it because i'd probably change to cheaper package and he wouldn't set up his own account :laugh:

The cheapest option for one person would be fine for individuals I think, IF they just made it HD?? It's standard definition which in this day and age... well... just daft really. Just... why. They could at least offer 720p or something. No one is realistically going to go for anything lower than the "medium" package surely.

I also didn't realise that on medium you can only stream to two devices at once, I thought the only difference was the 4k. Not that it's an issue anyway, as the only people ever using it are me + my eldest or me & my wife on the main telly + my eldest, so there's never going to be more than two on at once, but still... 2 screens for £11 a month is crap...

It's not even that paying for 4k was an issue at all, this is purely on principle :joker:.

It was the amount of screens that made us go for the best package rather than the quality but yeah I don't understand why if you're a single person for example you'd have to pay €20 a month to get the best quality instead of being able to pay for 1 screen but with the best quality

Speaking of the cost of subs by the way, if anyone has a YouTube Premium sub, I've basically had it half price for the last 6 months with this one NEAT TRICK...

... ... so basically, they keep giving me free trials :think:. I sub for a month but don't set it to renew, it expires, they give me a free trial... I use that then sub at the end of it... let it expire... they offer me another free month. It seems this may never end? :joker:.

Also just found out you can get 6 months of Disney+ with 800 (£8 worth) of clubcard points which is practically free so I'm doing that once I have 800 :shrug:. I rack up a frightening number of clubcard points. 2 points for every £1 on fuel at Tesco pumps and I'm currently filling up £90 a week :facepalm:. Still... free Disney+ woooo! :umm2:

Compared to sky it's cheap, and don't they create their own content too now? That's got to be worth it. My kids share a password he just buys her a coffee every now and again.

I pay for the basic package and it does me just fine at £5.99 a month (going up to £6.99) :smug:

Have never felt tempted by any of the higher priced packages. Paying like 75% more just for HD seems crazy

I definitely don't pay for it for the HD, I pay for it for the screens