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Comment by pseudo0 | Hacker News Reader

Rocking the boat is probably a bad idea for Netflix. If they start sparking family discussions about usage, a lot of families will have moments where everyone says "I thought you were using it." And then they just cancel rather than absorb the multi-home price hike for a service they hardly use.

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This is absolutely happening now and is a thing.

I downgraded to the $9.99/month SD one screen option because I asked and no one else was watching at all and now I'm rethinking even continuing with that. The upcoming ad-supported tier might be an option but I suspect many subscriptions will become very ephemeral.

It prompted me to pull up the handy "recent device streaming activity" tab and it turns out my brother is still using it, so I guess the subscription lives another day (at least until they try to start charging per location).

That's the thing - you're probably not going to broach the subject with your brother as long as it doesn't really impact you at all. If Netflix tightens the screws, now you have an uncomfortable situation to deal with.

The smart move for Netflix would have been to silently transition the "freeloaders" to the ad-supported plan. They should have just done that without all of the dicking around in South America and under the radar. Freeloaders start seeing ads with a friendly link to upgrade to the paid plan. Maybe they do, maybe they don't, but Netflix gets paid either way.

Exactly. See other comments in this thread, people saying "The only reason I haven't cancelled Netflix already is because I'm pretty sure my brother in law is using it".

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