Hacker News Reader

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.

View on HN

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com