Netflix Inc. lost more than one million users in Spain in the first three months of 2023 according to market research group Kantar, a sign that the streaming giant\u2019s crackdown on password-sharing could backfire.<\/p>\n
In early February, Netflix introduced a \u20ac5.99 ($6.57) monthly fee for users in Spain who shared their login details with another household and technical measures to detect such sharing.<\/p>\n
The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two-thirds of whom were using someone else\u2019s password, according to Kantar\u2019s research, which is based on surveys of household streaming habits.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear this steep drop is due to the crackdown,\u201d said Dominic Sunnebo, global insight director at Kantar\u2019s Worldpanel Division, adding that the loss of a million users, even if most weren\u2019t paid subscribers, would be a blow to Netflix in terms of word of mouth recommendation for its shows and service.<\/p>\n
Subscription cancellations in the first quarter tripled compared to the previous period, according to Kantar\u2019s research. Of all remaining Netflix subscribers in Spain, one-tenth said they planned to unsubscribe in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Netflix didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A similar fee was introduced in Portugal, Canada and New Zealand after testing in several Latin American countries.<\/p>\n
Globally, more than 100 million people use an account they don\u2019t pay for, according to Netflix. The company doesn\u2019t break this figure down by country.<\/p>\n
Last week Netflix\u00a0missed expectations<\/a><\/strong> for new subscribers in the first quarter, but the company said that the password-policing plan and a cheaper streaming version with ads would accelerate growth in the second half of 2023.<\/p>\n Netflix\u2019s investment in Spanish-language content seems to be paying off. In the first three months of 2023, two of the five most-watched series in Spain were available to stream on Netflix, according to Kantar.<\/p>\n The company opened its first European production hub in Madrid in 2019, a facility that had doubled in size by the end of last year.<\/p>\n Netflix lost a million subscribers in Spain after introducing a fee for shared accounts. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":465197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[35,2054,61751,22205,62312],"class_list":["post-489121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadcasting","tag-headline","tag-netflix","tag-password-sharing","tag-spain","tag-video-streaming-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":489123,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489121\/revisions\/489123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: DStv vs international satellite TV operators \u2014 South Africa getting a raw deal<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"