The number of subscribers at Netflix increased significantly after the start of the broad crackdown on password sharing. The video streaming giant added 5.9 million subscribers in the second quarter.
For a few weeks now, Netflix has been taking action in Germany, among other places, against users sharing an account across a household. Additional money is now due for this. Netflix is betting that affected users would rather pay than cancel the service. Netflix now has a total of 238.4 million paying customers.
This calculation seems to work out so far. Sales are now higher in each region than before the crackdown on password free riders began, Netflix said after the US stock market closed on Wednesday. Overall, sales increased by 2.7 percent to almost 8.2 billion dollars (around 7.3 billion euros) compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The bottom line was a profit of $1.49 billion after being in the black from $1.44 billion a year earlier.
Recently, Netflix not only made a name for itself with a new fee for shared accounts, but also with the recent strike in Hollywood. In the creative headquarters of the American film and streaming business, not only the scriptwriters are now on strike, but also the actors since last Friday. This means that Netflix and Amazon will no longer be able to produce and release new series seasons in the coming weeks and months. The punctual start of films is also in danger. Late-night talk shows have not been produced since early May due to the writers’ strike.
>> Read about this: Actors paralyze Hollywood
The demonstrators in front of the headquarters of Netflix, Paramount and Warner Brothers are not so much concerned with salary increases. Above all, they fear that with the use of artificial intelligence, fewer and fewer actors and fewer screenwriters will be needed. After all, AI has recently made great strides in both areas.
That is why the unions, to which almost everyone in the US film business belongs, are demanding that the use of artificial intelligence should follow clear rules, for example when it is used to write dialogues or when a virtual actor is created based on a human model.
Among other things, they are demanding long-term remuneration for streaming series, which – unlike on television – has not existed so far. Even if a streaming series is sold abroad, the actors should benefit as with TV series. So far, the actors have hardly participated in streaming when a series is successful. The unions want to change that.
Some studios, on the other hand, obviously want the exact opposite. They have submitted proposals that they will own all rights to digital likenesses of actors. Then they would not have to make any payments if, for example, new digital series were invented and shot from existing material.
More: How much does account sharing cost and how much is a subscription?