Prime Video is not about to let rival Netflix forget about its previously benevolent attitude toward password sharing.
Replying to a blissed-out 2017 tweet by Netflix (“Love is sharing a password”), the UK Twitter handle of Prime Video delivered a jab embedded in a graphic. (See the exchange below.)
In a mock-up of Netflix’s home screen, which presents all of the user profiles associated with an account, the Prime Video account provided a taunting answer to the question, “Who’s watching?” It replied, “Everyone who has our password,” punctuating it with a heart emoji. The tweet has generated more than half a million likes since being posted Thursday.
Netflix, which has cited internal research that as many as 100 households have been sharing passwords, is in the midst of rolling out a new policy to charge those passing along log-in credentials. The crackdown, which the company describes with the less ominous-sounding phrase “paid sharing,” reached the U.S. this week after taking effect in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. Subscribers to the company’s $15.49 tier (the most popular plan) have to pay an extra $7.99 for anyone sharing the subscriber’s password.
The effort to rein in sharing has been accompanied by Netflix’s launch last fall of a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier. Wall Street analysts have said the two initiatives, working in tandem, could generate billions of dollars in supplemental revenue in the coming years. That influx is seen as a difference-maker as the company copes with subscriber saturation in some territories and increased competition in a streaming field it once had practically all to itself.
Newer rivals to Netflix have generally not sought to limit password sharing, determining (as Netflix did earlier on) that attaining scale is their primary goal and reclaiming lost revenue can come later. For its part, Prime Video is tied to the much broader Prime subscription plan offering free shipping and other perks, and thus far Amazon has been more flexible in allowing adults to be added to a household’s Prime account.
While clashes between brands are nothing new on social media, particularly in the tech world, Prime Video’s snarky tone contrasts with the magnanimous 2021 tweet by Jeff Bezos about the “impressive and inspiring” success of Netflix’s Squid Game.
