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Prime Video isn’t about to let rival Netflix forget its previously benevolent stance on password sharing.
In response to a hilarious 2017 tweet from Netflix (“Love shares a password”), Prime Video’s UK Twitter handle delivered a whack embed in a graphic. (See exchange below).
In a sample of the Netflix home screen, which presents all user profiles associated with an account, a Prime Video account provided an ironic answer to the question, “Who watches?” And he responded, “Whoever has our password,” and mixed it up with a heart emoji. The tweet has generated more than half a million likes since it was posted on Thursday.
Netflix, which cited internal research that as many as 100 households share passwords, is in the midst of rolling out a new policy to charge those who pass login credentials. The campaign, which the company describes as a less ominous “paid share,” arrived in the US this week after taking effect in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. Subscribers to the $15.49 Business tier (the most popular plan) will have to pay an additional $7.99 for anyone who shares the subscriber’s password.
The effort to curb sharing coincided with Netflix’s launch last fall of a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier. Working in tandem, the two initiatives, Wall Street analysts said, could generate billions of dollars in complementary revenue in the coming years. This influx is seen as a cause of difference as the company adjusts to subscriber saturation in some regions and increased competition in a field of broadcasting that it has almost had to itself.
Netflix’s newer competitors have generally not sought to limit password sharing, specifying (as Netflix has done previously) that domain achievement is their primary goal and lost revenue recovery can come later. For its part, Prime Video is tied into the broader Prime subscription plan that offers free shipping and other perks, and so far Amazon has been more flexible in allowing adults to be added to a family’s Prime account.
While brand clashes are nothing new on social media, particularly in the tech world, Prime Video’s acerbic tone contrasts with Jeff Bezos’ sweet 2021 tweet about the “amazing and inspiring” success of Netflix Squid game.
Here is the Prime Video UK tweet: