Amidst rampant speculations and myriad apprehensions about the decision of OTT giant Netflix to curb password sharing, it looks like the bold move is working big time in the US until now for the big shot streaming company. Because as per a recent report (via Antenna), Netflix has added more than a whopping number of two lakh new subscribers after it began communicating with and alerting its US-based subscribers about charging extra bucks last month for adding another user (who resides outside the account holder’s household) to their Netflix account.
Despite an anticipated backlash by OTT users, Netflix reportedly witnessed around one lakh new sign-ups each on two consecutive days – 26th May and 27th May. And in doing that, these increments in sign-ups are observed to be ahead of even the massive surges which happened during the pandemic period during March and April 2020. And interestingly, the number of cancellations by Netflix subscribers are lesser in number than sign-ups by new subscribers. So, overall, it’s great news for Netflix and the plan seems to be working fine as of now.
But all this data pertains to the US-based Netflix subscribers. But what about the Netflix subscribers in India? As of now, there is no confirmed update about exactly when Netflix will carry forward its password crackdown policy to other OTT consuming countries including India.
And as you know, India is a price-sensitive and a tricky market to crack and deal with. People in the US have a higher per capita income and consequently more spare money to spend in entertainment avenues than the OTT market in India. So, it’s obviously not guaranteed whether Netflix’s password crackdown policy will fetch positive results in the same way as it has done in the US so far. It’s a double-edged sword.
Many people who are presently enjoying Netflix content through their friends and family members outside their households in India might stop watching Netflix altogether once the password crackdown reaches this part of the world. But there might also be a segment which is willing to pay for their own Netflix subscription. Exactly what ratio it would be remains to be seen. But one thing is a virtual certainty – the Indian OTT market would be a tougher nut to crack compared to the US OTT market in spite of the huge popularity of Netflix among Indian OTT audiences.