It’s a common problem with many services that offer personalized recommendations: if you share an account among family members, it’s pretty difficult for a recommendation engine to get a sense of what one individual actually likes. Netflix is the perfect example in my household, as our “Recently Watched” videos will include things like iCarly (my boyfriend’s ten-year-old daughter’s favorite) and Man v Food (my teenage son’s). Needless to say, neither are really what I’m looking for in a recommended video, thank you very much.
Netflix is certainly aware of that problem, and according to an FAQ posted on its Investor Relations page, it’s looking at a number of tweaks to its offerings in order to make its streaming service work better for households – and for households’ individual members.
Sponsor
There are no specifics at this time, but Netflix does say that it’s considering shifting its emphasis from household to individual:
More recently, as streaming has become central to our business, we believe there may be an opportunity to change our focus from a household relationship to an individual relationship, since streaming is viewed on personal devices, such as phones, tablets, and laptops, as well as on shared large screen televisions.
More Streaming Options?
That move from the household-centered TV to individual’s mobile devices may require other changes as well. Currently Netflix only allows customers who sign up for the streaming-only plan to stream one movie at a time. Similarly, those who get one DVD a month and have unlimited streaming area also restricted to one stream. You can stream more than one movie at a time if you pay for the higher price packages.
But Netflix alludes in its Investors Relations FAQ that it’s looking to change these options, something that will become increasingly necessary as the company focuses more on streaming and less on DVD rentals. “Our $7.99-per-month plan is for one stream at a time, and later this year we expect to be able to offer consumers some account options to watch multiple simultaneous streams.”
Having a tiered streaming-only plan would make that option more viable for households, so that someone could watch Man v Food on their Xbox (for example) and not shut others out from watching iCarly on the iPad.
A recognition that consumers are watching videos on different devices this way might also prompt Netflix to make better use of individual profiles, even if under the umbrella of one master household account.
Would you pay more to have access to multiple streams on Netflix?
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.