48 Comments
Feb 7, 2023Liked by Sonny Bunch

I've never shared passwords and I've never cancelled Netflix because I wanted to support their model of streaming, no content blackouts, and full season drops. Obviously, it wasn't priced well and/or people have taken advantage because that model is clearly going away. I am not going to pay for blackouts and slow releases though, sorry. I'll just focus on video games and buy the handful of shows that do more than fill time from Amazon. I have a feeling there are going to be a few years of negative feedback loops before things stabilize again.

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What happens when you are traveling and the expectation of the hotel/AirBnB is that you log into your personal Netflix account to watch a movie on the smart TV in the room? Won’t that be history now?

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founding

Sounds like Neflix has pulled this information and updated that they have not worked this out yet.

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Pirates never pay for anything, but they love to make excuses while hiding in Reddit. Thieves need to be punished.

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This column was horribly depressing to me, given my eternal optimism that studios will start making good (read: not super hero) movies again. I get it that Netflix needs to make money and this rule won’t affect my family at all. But if everyone is doing this, I’ll lose Hulu and I’m not sure i like it enough to pay for it. This is a bit like having 6 subscriptions to various MMORPGs that you play once every couple of months. The cost can get out of hand very quickly.

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Lol what I love about the folks who are pissed at the new password sharing safeguards is that these entitled brats ACTUALLY believe they're making a viable business argument for ending the practice by saying that they'll just stop using Netflix and/or will pirate instead.

It's like a grocery store enforcing shoplifting prevention strategies and some dipshit tells you they're henceforth going to shoplift from a rival store as if that would hurt the original business.

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How will Netflix tell the difference between someone using my account and me watching with my subscription at my second home? (using a different internet carrier). I have computers/two TVs etc at each of those locations. This is nuts and if I end up needing to pay a subscription for each device using Netflix--I will not be using Netflix.

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Feb 3, 2023Liked by Sonny Bunch

Agreed 100% on Poker Face, but what really prompted me to respond was to give props for the Jenny Nicholson citation. I'm not pro-piracy, but that context aside, she's a pretty shrewd commentator on various aspects of pop culture. And very funny.

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Just listened to the bonus episode. My favorite anti-war films remain Johnny Got His Gun (1971) and Peter Weir's Gallipoli (1981). I would also toss in Band of Brothers (2001) but that is a TV miniseries.

The challenge of creating an effective anti-war film I believe was best summed up by fictious movie director Eli Cross (Peter O'Toole) in The Stunt Man (1980): "I know a man who made an anti-war movie... a good one. When it was shown in his home town, army enlistment went up six hundred percent."

Kind of like how Martin Scorsese tried to make Wall Street look as horrible as possible in Wolf of Wall Street. Who ends up loving the movie? People who work on Wall Street!!!

Thank you for the show.

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I’d watch Natasha in anything. She is completely charming in Poker Face. The show has lots of really good guest stars so far.

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Feb 3, 2023·edited Feb 3, 2023

It appears as though they're already walking this back:

“For a brief time yesterday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries,” a spokesperson for Netflix told The Streamable, adding, “We have since updated it.”

Sucks to be Chile, Costa Rica, or Peru, I suppose.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/netflix-backtracks-password-sharing-rules-162942246.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFnPXb0gxoKHCMtjxtJLfSuUtzh4e-oxsjaa5XH6G3hPF2aOhwAdUZDKNX_S5GyYZ1hQmmmNALuJPcOMw3D1gvj36FHsehr3Kc3TpkTzq4i9SV9a-el3t27YFc-ye9bKWNO2DUNM5AgT5J30L1OW3sZTpC3SC0JybCwtq6dCBDrM&guccounter=2

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Like someone already commented, I subscribe to a higher tier of Netflix because I share it with the friend who cared for me when I was in the hospital. I would GLADLY pay a few dollars more a month to keep providing this for her. But if Netflix cuts her off, I will probably cancel. I have Prime because I want free shipping (and Amazon throws in the worst streaming service for free.) I have the Hulu/Disney/live TV bundle and I'm getting the 3 for way less than I was paying for cable. And I get HBO Maxx for free with my internet service. I don't NEED Netflix! I don't NEED 40 different streaming services! And for that one show that I like on AMC/BritBox/PBS/Paramount, I can get it for one month, catch up, and cancel. I can do the same thing and watch the last seasons of The Crown and Stranger Things and then cancel again. I'm not paying $15 a month EVERY month if I can't share.

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founding

Why not offer a family sharing option you can pay for?

Why do the options have to be taking things away or making it more inconvenient?

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Feb 3, 2023·edited Feb 3, 2023

Hmm, so Netflix intentionally encouraged sharing passwords as part of a plan to dominate the market. They did, temporarily, but now there's a need for a course correction - it sounds like to me. I hope it isn't as bad as Matt Damon puts it. Are mid-level budget movies being squeezed out of the market? Can lower budget films make it?

We seem to have plenty of streaming TV series options. I'm curious about what's playing at the theaters and who's going to watch. I know I've only gone the last several years a handful of times for blockbuster type movies - so I guess I'm contributing to the problem.

I've been accumulating some movies that I purchase on Amazon Prime. But it all feels very fragmented now. I used to have a sense of some of the movies that were playing, and I used to care a bit about critic's reviews. Now I have no clue what's playing unless it's a blockbuster and I almost could care less whether critics like a film, because there is so often a disconnect between what I like and what the critics like. So I don't really watch much of anything, unless perhaps someone I know strongly recommends something.

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As a parent with two college students, not seeing the justification to cutoff their access because they’re away from their home for a couple months at a time during the school year. And we’re not cheapskates. Pay for almost all the streaming services and have never pirated. Until they are out on their own, seems right they should have family access. But idk. I guess we’ll suck it up if they cut off their access

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Feb 3, 2023·edited Feb 3, 2023Liked by Sonny Bunch

I deliberately signed up for a higher category of streaming (four simultaneous streams) at Netflix than I need specifically show that my elderly father could share my account. That is not freeloading! There is zero chance that my father will sign up for his own Netflix account, and this development may convince me to cancel my own account, as frankly, I don’t stream very often and don’t want to have to keep logging in to my Netflix account every 30 days or be locked out of it. I think Netflix is creating bigger headaches for itself than it realizes.

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