A naive end to that argument (ignoring the valid points you went on to make, I mean) would be that there only needs to be one netflix customer, because they don’t do anything extra for the second, third, fourth etc - therfore, everyone gets to watch Netflix on one person’s account!
You find me someone willing to pay Netflix $40bn a year and I feel like Netflix will oblige and let everyone stream for free on that one account.
~Max
But if they wanted to I think it would be pretty easy for them to charge for amount of content and data transmission per account but they chose not to. And I find it hard to believe they make more money by getting kids hooked turning them into paying adults. Kids are already getting peer pressure to watch Disney shows. And the current model does allow for adults sharing a household to save money.
But to the OP I object to the term “freeloaders.” If anything we cat ladies who can’t take full advantage of what the plan offers would be subsidizing families by using fewer resources.
Not my term - it was in the title of the CNN article. But believe me, the shoe fits in my case.
There are a slew of pros and cons to flat rate versus charging by usage, but the debate has already been had. In the early to mid '90s, telephone and internet service providers charged by the minute. By the late 2000s, with the exception of mobile data, flat rates had become the dominant business model. And “unlimited” mobile data is dominant in the U.S. today.
~Max
Probably not considering that mass streaming video has never once been about high quality. Do you want your 1080i compressed or your 4k highly compressed? Do you want your Big Mac in a artisan bag or a standard bag?
I’m not saying it won’t make any difference, as a Big Mac in a artisan bag may make someone’s day, but It’s a feature that helps if i’s included but nothing to pay for most of the time.
heh i remeber when costco was so exclusive you only got to get a membership if you were with certain professions and industries and organizations
I kind of feel like there should be Federal legislation that prevents absurd things like having to pay a subscription fee to have heated seats in your car. Some sort of bill that defines what a ‘service’ is and what it isn’t, and only allows subscriptions for services, which merely unlocking the butt heaters via software is most certainly not. I’m fully against the practice of charging subscription fees for existing functionality that can be disabled through hardware like butt heaters, or other stuff like that. I have a feeling that dystopic stuff lies down that path.
As far as tying the subscriptions to one household, I don’t have a problem with that. There’s no reason my friends and relatives can’t pay for their own subscriptions, and it’s not fair to expect Netflix to continue to allow that. I will say that it would be smart for them to offer an explicit sharing subscription package that allows people to do what they’re already doing though. However, I don’t see a reason that the subscription should be any more granular than household though. It would be silly for my children not to be able to use my accounts, at least until they’re adults and can get their own, and presumably will have their own devices to use them with.
Places like Costco with membership… I think it’s within their purview to crack down on sharing of membership cards, but I think it’s kind of dumb to do so unless there’s clear abuse.
I mean, I occasionally borrow a buddy’s card to get stuff for things like Scout campouts, and every time I do so, I both spend a lot of money, and I consider getting myself a card. Costco does not lose out when I do that- they make whatever money they make from my purchase, and I imagine some percentage of people like me do eventually convert into members. But if you’ve got a big extended family and one card shared among the parents and the families of their four kids, that’s abusing the privilege. There ought to be five memberships in that case.
Well, that kind of depends on how they are sharing the card. Those warehouse clubs have various ways of keeping non-members from shopping and probably the main one is when you must show your card to enter. They generally give two cards for free and explicitly allow members to bring a guest or two, although the member must pay . I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “borrowing a buddy’s card” but if you mean you go to a warehouse club with a friend who has a membership, there’s really no way for them to stop that without prohibiting me from shopping with my husband if another household member has the second card.