Archive for Netflix

Angry At Netflix Regarding Their Password Sharing Crackdown? Here’s How You Cancel Your Subscription

Posted in Commentary with tags on February 21, 2023 by itnerd

Everywhere I turn, people are mad about Netflix’s attempt to crack down on password sharing. I even went out to dinner with my wife last week and got into a discussion about it with a couple who was mad about this due to the fact that their son at university would be affected by this. So clearly this has created a whole lot of noise that Netflix likely didn’t want, and it will likely spur people to cancel their subscriptions. But before I tell you how to cancel your subscription, some background for you.

Under Netflix’s password-sharing rules, it’s fine for multiple people to use and share one account provided they live together. But in certain countries (I’ll post the list of countries in a moment), that’s about to change. In those countries, if you don’t all live together then you’re no longer going to be allowed to do share your Netflix account. Well, not for free anyway. When this rolls out to your region, you’ll be asked to set a “primary location”. Netflix hasn’t given a whole lot of detail about how they will enforce this. That’s likely because they don’t want people to figure out how to circumvent it once it rolls out.

Once this primary location is set, people who don’t live at it will have three options.

  • Option 1: Cancel Netflix 
  • Option 2: Sign up for their own private Netflix account 
  • Option 3: Pay an additional fee and become an “extra member” to the existing account 

The list of countries that are affected by this currently are:

  • Canada
  • Chile
  • Costa Rica
  • New Zealand 
  • Peru
  • Portugal
  • Spain 

And this rolls out to Canada today. While the U.S. isn’s subject to this as I type this, you can bet it’s going to be at some point.

So, if you’re mad about this and you want to cancel your Netflix account as a result, here’s how you do it. Let’s start with the Netflix app:

  • Open the Netflix app
  • Tap on your profile icon on the top right.
  • Tap on ‘Account’
  • Tap on ‘Cancel Membership’

You will then be asked to confirm the cancellation, with your current subscription ending on the day of plan renewal. Tap on ‘Finish Cancellation’ to confirm.

And if you’re doing it via a web browser, here’s what you need to do:

  • Go to www.netflix.com/browse and log in to your account.
  • Hover over your profile icon on the top right of the screen and click on ‘Account.’ Under ‘Membership and Billing’
  • Click on ‘Cancel Membership,’ and then ‘Finish Cancellation’ to confirm.

I get why Netflix is doing this. But I really think that this has been handled badly by the company. We are in a day and age where companies are winning marketshare by being “frictionless” and easy to use. Thus it is beyond comprehension that Netflix would do such a stupid thing. I say that because I have an Apple TV+ subscription and I can watch what I want where I want and Apple doesn’t seem to care. I assume other streaming services are the same way, though I am free to be corrected on that front. In any case, Netflix has seriously shot itself in the foot by doing this by destroying a lot of good will with their customer base. And I seriously doubt that they will get that good will, along with those customers back as a result.

Bumble & Netflix Team Up To Help You Find The Date You’ve Been Watching For 

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 23, 2023 by itnerd

Bumble, the women-first dating and social networking app,  and Netflix have teamed up to help members Find the Date You’ve Been Watching For. The campaign inspires the well-watched to celebrate the shows they love while building connections over their Netflix knowledge in a new way.

Beginning January 30, the Bumble community can put their insider knowledge to the test by playing a Netflix-themed Question Game, “Netflix Nights In”, with their matches around some of Netflix’s biggest shows including Emily in Paris, Stranger Things, Squid Game, Selling Sunset, Love is Blind, Outer Banks and more. The Bumble community can also expect to see some familiar faces in-app and on social, such as Emily in Paris’ Ashley Park, Alexa Lemieux of Love is Blind, and Selling Sunset’s Amanza Smith, as each week’s questions will be introduced by someone from the corresponding show.

Much like being well-traveled or well-read can lead to a conversation over shared interests, being well-watched can be a catalyst for making new connections. According to Netflix, members watch an average of six different genres a month, and a recent Bumble survey found that 53% of Canadian respondents agree that it’s easier to talk to matches or dates if they’ve watched the same movies or tv shows and 56% of Canadians surveyed are more likely to match with someone if they mention a tv show or movie they like on their profile. *

Bumble’s “Netflix Nights In” Question Game requires both people who have matched to answer the question before responses are revealed. Bumble also shared the percentage of good chats is higher when the Question Game is played.

“Netflix Nights In” will be available each Monday in the Bumble app in the US, Canada, and the UK through March 13.

Netflix Is Down And The Internet Reacts

Posted in Commentary with tags on October 1, 2016 by itnerd

If you were hoping to Netflix and chill, forget it. The popular streaming service is down. Globally:

People are taking to Twitter to react. Here are some examples:

https://twitter.com/kylayein/status/782298122785480704

https://twitter.com/NoraBella22/status/782313376332390400

I am monitoring to see when it comes back up. But for much of the Internet, it can’t happen soon enough.

UPDATE: Netflix is back. You can now Netflix and chill:

Netflix ISP Speed Index Is Out For July

Posted in Commentary with tags on August 18, 2015 by itnerd

The Netflix ISP Speed Index which shows how ISPs in Canada perform when it comes to Netflix is out for July and it shows some movement versus June’s results:

  • MTS – FIBER OPTIC is up one spot
  • SASKTEL – FIBER OPTIC is up two spots
  • Rogers is down one spot
  • Eastlink – High Speed is down one spot
  • Telus is up one spot
  • Cogeco is down one spot
  • Distributel is up one spot
  • TekSavvy is up one spot

The other thing that I notice is that there seems to be a bit more of a gap between each ISP in terms of their average speed. All of this implies that ISPs are trying to “one up” each other to get your business because they know that performing well on this speed index will help them to attract customers.

Netflix Canadian Speed Index Released For The Month Of June

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 13, 2015 by itnerd

It seems that the competition is tightening when it comes to the Netflix Canadian Speed Index which measures “prime time Netflix performance on a particular ISP and not a measure of overall performance for other services/data that may travel across the specific ISP network. Faster Netflix performance generally means better picture quality, quicker start times and fewer interruptions.”

The key things to note for the month of June are:

  • Rogers cable internet went up two spots
  • Eastlink high speed dropped one spot
  • SaskTel fibre optic dropped one spot
  • Telus went up a spot
  • Teksavvy dropped one spot

The full index can be found here.

Bell Exec Says Using VPN’s To See US Netflix is “Stealing”

Posted in Commentary with tags , on June 4, 2015 by itnerd

Here’s something that caught my attention. Bell Media’s new President Mary Ann Turcke made a very curious statement yesterday at the Telecom Summit in Toronto. Here’s what she said via the CBC:

“It has to become socially unacceptable to admit to another human being that you are VPNing into U.S. Netflix,” she said, “like throwing garbage out your car window — you just don’t do it.”

And:

“Not only does society not scold anyone for stealing content — we feature ‘how to’ articles in our national newspapers educating the masses on how to get around copyright law.”

I’m sure the fact that the rights to some of the content that people are accessing via VPN on the US version of Netfilx because they can’t easily get it in Canada happens to be owned by Bell has nothing to do with her statements. Read into that what you will.

As an aside, Ms. Turcke is the replacement for Kevin Crull. You might remember him as the guy who meddled in the affairs of CTV News when he was mad at the CRTC and then was forced to resign under a cloud.

Netflix Releases ISP Speed Index For March

Posted in Commentary with tags , on April 13, 2015 by itnerd

It’s time for Netflix to show which Canadian ISP’s play nice with their streaming service. Here’s the high level results:

  • Bell Canada Fiber Optic continues to lead.
  • Videotron jumps up one spot to third overall
  • Teksavvy moved up two spots to tenth
  • MTS fiber optic along with TELUS and Distributel all dropped one spot

The other thing to note is there’s not much to choose between the top 8 on the list. That at least shows that the ISP’s in question really care about scoring well when it comes to this list.

Netflix ISP Index Shows A Lot Of Change In Canadian Rankings

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on February 9, 2015 by itnerd

The last few ISP Speed Indexes published by Netflix showed that Canadian ISPs were all bunched up with roughly the same levels of performance. That’s changed with the Speed Index For January that was released today. Here’s the highlights:

  • SaskTel – Fiber Optic jumped up two spots to 4th.
  • Shaw dropped two spots to 6th.
  • Telus and Bell each went up a spot to 11th and 12th respectively.
  • Teksavvy dropped two spots to 13th.
  • The kings of the hill were Bell Canada’s Fiber Optic service.
  • The spread between the top ten was .46 Mbps which is a bit wider than last month.

You can bet that there’s some explaining going on in the boardrooms of those who dropped in this ranking.

Netflix Responds To VPN Crackdown…. Sort Of….

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 5, 2015 by itnerd

Earlier today, I reported on Netflix apparently cracking down on users who use VPNs and other means to get Netflix content that is not available in their country. When I wrote the original article, I had this to say:

Perhaps what’s needed here is some clarification so that everyone knows what the deal is?

Netflix has reached out to The Globe And Mail with this:

Netflix declined an interview request but released a statement saying it hasn’t changed its policies on restricting access to content based on geography.

“Virtually crossing borders to use Netflix is a violation of our terms of use because of content licensing restrictions. We employ industry standard measures to prevent this kind of use. There hasn’t been any recent changes to the Netflix VPN policy or terms of use,” reads the statement.

Okay. So they added a bit more meat to their original statement by highlighting the fact that using VPNs and other means to get Netflix content is a violation of their terms of service. But other than that, there’s nothing new here. There’s no clarity as to why all of a sudden this change to actively stop people from circumventing whatever blocks that they have in place has been made. I would say that there needs to be additional clarity here, but I think its safe to say that it’s not coming.

 

Netflix To Crack Down On VPN Users?

Posted in Commentary with tags on January 5, 2015 by itnerd

If you like Netflix and you live in a part of the planet that doesn’t have the selection of content that you want, you may use a VPN or Virtual Private Network to get you access to the Netflix content that you want. If you use the search engine of your choice, you can find lots of VPN options out there. However, the option of using a VPN to get the Netflix content that you want may be coming to an end as reports are surfacing that Netflix will be blocking VPN access. Here’s what News.com had to say:

The news comes after a major industry group representing rights holders and distributors confirmed that its members were lobbying Netflix in the United States to see the US version of the service blocked for users outside that region.

Netflix is currently available in nearly 50 countries worldwide, with content varying by location according to local licensing arrangements. However, in regions where the service is not available, including Australia, residents can still access the US iteration of Netflix using a VPN or similar IP-masking tools. In Australia alone, as many as 200,000 households access US Netflix according to figures cited by the company.

Those users could soon be blocked from using the service, according to new reports.

The latest version of their Android app apparently has changes that stops users from fooling Netflix into thinking that they are from a different part of the planet than they are actually from. However, Netflix denies that they are going after VPN users:

“There have been no changes to our VPN policies,” a Netflix spokesperson said.

I’m not sure that this will convince anyone.

Now the use of VPN software to get your hands on the Netflix content that you want to see is a violation of their terms of service. After all, their content is licensed for a specific country and rights holders (aka: the studios) want to make sure that they get paid accordingly. So you cannot be surprised that Netflix would decide to go after anyone who uses such a service. Thus they are correct when they say that nothing has changed…. Other than the fact that they’re simply enforcing the rules. Perhaps what’s needed here is some clarification so that everyone knows what the deal is?