Cable TV's Password-Sharing Crackdown Is Coming (bloomberg.com) 143
Charter Communications' CEO, Tom Rutledge, is leading an industrywide effort to crack down on password sharing. It's a growing problem that could cost pay-TV companies millions of subscribers -- and billions of dollars in revenue -- when they can least afford it. Bloomberg reports: Cable and satellite carriers in North America have lost 3 million customers this year alone. But the prevalence of password sharing suggests many of those customers, and possibly many more, are watching popular shows like "The Walking Dead" for free, robbing pay-TV providers and programmers of paying subscribers and advertising dollars. Most pay-TV companies only require users to re-enter their passwords for each device once a year. During contract negotiations this fall, Charter urged Viacom Inc., home of Comedy Central and MTV, to help limit illicit password swapping. The cable company wants programmers to restrict the number of concurrent streams on their apps and force legitimate subscribers to log in more often, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. ESPN, meanwhile, has reduced the number of simultaneous streams that it allows on its app to five from 10 and is considering cutting that to three, Connolly said. ESPN wants to work more closely with distributors to validate subscribers when there are high volumes of streaming on its app outside the cable company's territory.
So what the article says is (Score:1)
We need a law to prohibit all terms in a contract not specifically related to the acquisition and distribution of said content. Problem solved. How many times a app requires someone to reauthorize really? I would assume they were talking Netflix...
Re:So what the article says is (Score:4, Insightful)
We need a law to prohibit all terms in a contract not specifically related to the acquisition and distribution of said content. Problem solved. How many times a app requires someone to reauthorize really? I would assume they were talking Netflix...
Why the hell is this a problem for government to solve?
WTF do you want? The fucking logon police?
Talk about overweening statism...
If a company wants to charge for their content, let them figure out how to prevent users from sharing logins.
Re: So what the article says is (Score:1, Funny)
I'm with you. We need a law to stop people from doing that.
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Upgrade your damn iOS device.
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The device MAC address gets registered with the ISP/TV provider as "allowed"
The device's MAC address is invisible after the first hop. Unless you are saying that the device reports it over its own private channel. But then you would just use a device where you can easily spoof a MAC address.
Now if the device had to check in from the home Internet connection every 30 days to get an authorization token, that would be almost reasonable.
Re: So what the article says is (Score:2)
Re: So what the article says is (Score:5, Insightful)
Cable companies: "We need to government to protect us from our theiving customers." Also cable companies: "But government regulation is bad! We must end net neutrality!"
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Cable companies: "We need to government to protect us from our theiving customers." Also cable companies: "But government regulation is bad! We must end net neutrality!"
Voila! No net neutrality. The easiest way to cancel a cable service is to stop paying them, now go outside and play.
Re: So what the article says is (Score:2)
Thanks for pushing me back to reading! (Score:4, Insightful)
With every passing year it becomes more of a pain in the ass and more expensive to "consume content". I cut the cord almost ten years ago and now only pay for my DSL connection and Netflix. I would never in a million years pay for multiple streaming packages and/or cable tv or satellite tv.
Never...
If anything, this amalgamation of absolute fucking crap that continues to roll downhill, masquerading as the current content consumption paradigm, has me watching less "tv" and reading more.
Thanks!
Brilliant strategy (Score:5, Funny)
I'm sure all of those millennials sharing their parents' passwords will immediately sign up for cable as soon as the restrictions take effect.
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I'm sure all of those millennials sharing their parents' passwords will immediately sign up for cable as soon as the restrictions take effect.
It's short-sighted to say that none of them would get their own cable TV accounts. It's also possible they might sign-up for streams directly from networks like ESPN, HBO, AMC, etc., benefitting the networks and bypassing traditional cable TV.
But, it could go the other generational way too. My wife and I* have Netflix with 4 four device log-ins, but we only use 2, so we gave our respective baby-boomer parents each a device log-in. We helped our parents see the benefit of using a streaming service. If Netfli
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* - We are between GenX and Millenial... both born in 1980. Make whatever assumption you want. It will not change the reality.
What reality? That you are illegally sharing accounts?
You may have some naive fantasy that you are "sticking it to the man" You aren't. When you share your account, it increases traffic and keeps cash flow to Netflix the same. What do you think happens? Do you think Netflix says "oh well, less profit for us!". No, they raise prices. So basically your logic is I'll steal what amounts to an entire subscription, but the associated loss will be spread over the entire subscriber base. Win for you!
If you need hel
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Re: Brilliant strategy (Score:2)
I don't think you understood that article. The quoted expert suggests that it IS illegal on Canada, but that the crown would be "unlikely" to pursue charges.
Re: Brilliant strategy (Score:2)
Lick those boots!
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Keep on stealing what you can. Cheating your taxes, hiring a personal injury lawyer when you slip at the grocery or get in a fender bender, whatever. Life is about grabbing all you can at the expense of others.
Re:Brilliant strategy (Score:4, Insightful)
Nope. I don't have a "naive fantasy" that I am "sticking it to the man," that's just your strawman argument. I have no problems at all being part of a normal market economy. I am paying Netflix for 4 streams whether I use them or someone else does. No other rationalization is needed. A streaming service is able to reduce the number of available streams to subscribers and/or put better restrictions in place on sharing as they feel it is necessary. It's no different than a software company choosing whether or not to put DRM on their software or telecoms restricting tethering, they are weighing profits vs satisfaction of customers. If Netflix changes things so my wife and I can't share as easily, then us and our respective parents will decide how we all want to spend our money, like people in a normal market economy do. Coincidentally the original article is about networks wanting to reduce number of streams to try to get more subscribers. So, a real life example of what is described in the article [and the icing on the cake is contrary to popular generational stereotypes it's the baby boomer generation parents coasting on their children.]
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I am paying Netflix for 4 streams whether I use them or someone else does.
No, you are not. If you have any question, I suggest you call Netflix support and ask them. If you are going to pick and choose, why bother considering any of the rules? At least be honest with yourself.
No other rationalization is needed.
Agreed, life is simpler if you just don't think about how your actions effects others.
If Netflix changes things so my wife and I can't share as easily, then us and our respective parents will decide how we all want to spend our money, like people in a normal market economy do.
Exactly. So you'll break the rules until someone has a way to force you to stop. Like I said, ponder if you will how society would operate if everyone followed that creed.
it's the baby boomer generation parents coasting on their children
Are you really so simple that you are breaking this
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He is paying for 4 streams.
No, he's paying for 4 streams / household. If you are going to ignore the rules, you might as well ignore all of them. At least then you are honest with yourself.
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He is paying for 4 streams.
No, he's paying for 4 streams / household. If you are going to ignore the rules, you might as well ignore all of them. At least then you are honest with yourself.
Then let's also be honest that netflix doesn't mean their service to be one physical house only...that's an old-school cable TV mindset. Netflix advertises that subscribers get multiple streams so that a family with multiple homes or family members who travel a lot can all access their Netflix account from anywhere. Netflix has tiered pricing for 1, 2, and 4 streams on a single account. They know exactly what they offering and what customers will do with those options. It's built into their business model a
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Then let's also be honest that netflix doesn't mean their service to be one physical house only.
Please link the ToS that explains where you can share your account with other households / other people not at your billing address. Can't? Okay, then be quiet.
FYI, I bothered to Google it. Here it is from the CEO's mouth:
"The terms of use is sharing within the household and that's our expectation," he added.
Source:
https://www.express.co.uk/life... [express.co.uk]
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The CEO's next two sentences after the one you quoted back up my point: "...I don't think we are obsessed with enforcing compliance with a one-household-per-account constraint. Because, in reality, it's a high-value programme, so that's what people are going to do."
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Nothing illegal. Nothing immoral.
You are right, it's not illegal. It's against their TOS. Morality is of course subjective.
No prices will go up.
Do you really think that if every Netflix subscriber shared their account 4 ways, it wouldn't impact prices? Can you really think that?
I guess you never had econ 101 or equivalent. More streams require more resources. Resources are not free. You know, things like electricity, bandwidth, developers, payoffs to Big Cable. If the cost of doing business goes up, prices go up. This is all very well understood.
You pay for the number of simultaneous streaming devices 1, 2 or 4. What do you think that's for?
I think (know)
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At this point I have to conclude I'm being trolled or you are mentally handicapped, so I'm going to bow out of the discussion.
As a 3rd party observer to this exchange, I would say that you are the one trolling.
Re: Brilliant strategy (Score:2)
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Let's go back to trying to ban music ripping while we're at it.
Ripping music for your own use is fine (and legal). Multi-streams within your own household is fine too. Ripping it to distribute to others is not, neither is sharing your account to others.
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We are between GenX and Millenial... both born in 1980. Make whatever assumption you want. It will not change the reality.
Aside: we've been termed "Oregon Trailers" [wikipedia.org].
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I'm sure all of those millennials sharing their parents' passwords will immediately sign up for cable as soon as the restrictions take effect.
That's like saying if I put a fence up around my field people will stop stealing my apples. And ... what's the downside?I get more apples to sell to paying customers, and I lose nothing otherwise. I guess I had to pay for a fence.
I know "screw the cable companies" and all that, but the bottom line is that if there's more traffic on their networks and fewer paying users the price goes up for those of us that do pay fairly. People have this fantasy that they are sticking it to the man. They aren't they are st
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Sure, they'll probably try to pirate the content if they can't mooch of their parents Cable accounts anymore. But, wait... this is one of the reasons why the telcos and cable companies lobbied to kill net neutrality!
There aren't as many legal issues from stopping ISP's from blocking BitTorrent traffic now, or any of the known pirate stream aggregating sites. Sure, they won't be able to block all pirated content, but they'll probably be able to get rid of the people using sites like GoStream and hacked Kodi
Didn't Netflix solve this? (Score:5, Insightful)
$n.nn for two screens $n.nn + $5 or so for 4 screens.
Seems pretty dang simple to me.
Rather than trying to police the mess that is "is this a shared PWD or is this a mobile user or is this a legit user that moved their cable box for the night?" they just limit concurrent streams to whatever you've paid for.
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yeah but they probably patented the process so now we need laws for all others providers so that they too can do nothing and litigate the customer/potential customer into fucktardom.
cause thats how they roll
Re:Didn't Netflix solve this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Netflix has been pretty awesome about this stuff for years, in fact. Prior to the current plans (i.e. back when they didn’t have profiles and only offered two screens), Netflix used to state in their terms that each account was “per household”, and then they had a generous definition for “household” that made it applicable to everyone from unrelated roommates living together to college students away at school. And they were really smart when they added multiple profiles per account, since they all share a single login, including access to billing details, which acts as a natural disincentive against sharing your account too far and wide.
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No Netflix just caused it all over again. Can't buy less than 3 parallel screens or 5 if i want 4K, so unless I share my password, I would not only be paying for crap that I don't want, I wouldn't even be using it.
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but they're getting paid for both screens, if you're splitting the bill informally with someone, Netflix doesn't GAF, as long as the card used is good.
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I can see perhaps for Netflix or Amazon but is anyone really sharing their cable account password?
I've been using my aunt's for years. She pays for pretty much every channel with DirecTV (except HBO for some reason!?), but because of her internet options where she lives, is unable to make use of the streaming features, so I (with her permission) do.
Re:Is this really an issue? (Score:4)
I use my parents' cable account password to access streaming apps on my Apple TV for the providers that require a cable password after we cut the cord. I'd gladly *pay* individual providers for streaming instead if they provided it rather this stupid cable password requirement.
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> I can see perhaps for Netflix or Amazon but is anyone really sharing their cable account password?
Yes. ALL the cable companies track a metric called "Out of Home" -- due to licensing issues.
They know exactly when you are consuming content at your house vs outside the house.
Charging a modest fee per device (or connection) would solve the problem for everyone.
and? (Score:1)
Is the TFA really implying locking down concurrent streams is a problem?
To paraphrase Princess Leia (Score:5, Insightful)
The more you tighten your grip cable companies, the more customers will slip through your fingers.
Yaz
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[...]unless they eschew cable service entirely.
Ever hear of cord cutting? It's happening more and more, and the cable companies are losing out because of it big time.
I'm fortunate in that my employer pays for my cable bill, but if they didn't I'd cut the cord as well.
Yaz
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Aren't you admitting that you work for a cable company with that admission?
Nope -- I do work for a large private global corporation with revenues over $2 billion US per year (for not quite Fortune 500) as a fully remote employee; early on they decided to pay the full bill, as my cable company doesn't break out the charge for TV versus Internet.
Technically it's up to me to pay for any PPV type charges that may occur on the bill, but as we don't incur any such charges in our household, it's never come up.
Yaz
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Nope, but I do have a WLAN that you can get the fuck off of.
Solution: DVD rental (Score:4, Insightful)
Netflix DVD catalog is VASTLY bigger than the streaming catalog. It has almost every movie ever made. In addition, you can rent a DVD, watch it, sneakernet it over to your buddy, who watches it. Then post it back to netflix. No password needed.
The only significant drawback is that you might have to wait a few months for the newest TV series to appear on DVD - unless you can pick them up on broadcast. Just think of it like if they had come out a few months later. In some ways that is nicer, because you can binge them if you want without waiting a week between eps.
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The only significant drawback is that you might have to wait a few months for the newest TV series to appear on DVD - unless you can pick them up on broadcast. Just think of it like if they had come out a few months later.
After your co-workers have already spoiled them and closed discussion of them around the water cooler.
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I dropped my NF disk subscription because, while the catalog may have "almost every movie ever made", the actual availability for about 90% of it was nil. Too many titles had "very long wait".
Worse were TV series - what good is short waits on disks 2, 3, and 6 if 1, 4, and 5 were "missing but still in the catalog"?
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No - that used to be true. My Saved list (not available) is growing monthly. They've been selling off catalog and a lot of movies that were on my list are now (likely permanently) unavailable.
It's not just back catalog. Indie movies from the past few years were never added to the library.
I've never seen Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That's a major movie - in the AFI 100 list and the National Film Registry. I added the Blu-Ray to my list years ago - it came out in 2008. It is no longer available.
That's funny (Score:5, Funny)
>>...when they can least afford it
Go on, tell me another one!
Smart move in Russia (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like cable is about to shoot itself in the foot.
Meanwhile, Netflix doesn't complain about shared passwords, even allows users to set up multiple profiles on each account so it's easier to share.
I hope netflix has enough bandwidth to absorb all the new customers that are about to join up.
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Why do you think this happens immediately -AFTER- net neutrality is repealed?
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Also I heard that in Romania a lamb was born with two heads. Truly an ill omen. We are living in the end times!
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Yup those R's are tight with the entertainment companies I can't wait till the D's get back in and straighten things out. I mean the way Hollywood and entertainment types just swoon over Trump and company clearly we need the impartial D's to break up that marriage.
Seriously!! What reality do you live?
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Hmmm... I guess à la carte means different things to different people. I'd be willing to go either way, although I prefer specific content over specific channels, like you suggest.
Here's the problem. I cut the cord, but I can already get specific content. Take the Walking Dead, for instance. I can pay Amazon $3 an episode, or $25 for the season. The problem I have with that is, if I were subscribing to cable, AMC would make HALF of what ONE episode costs and I'd be able to watch ALL their shows; e
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tl;dr Offer episodes for rental and not just purchase.
Take a cue from Apple / Adobe (Score:5, Interesting)
Just limit it by MAC to a certain # of devices, and let the user delete devices from time to time. Apple does this already, so does Adobe CC, and Google Music. It's not that hard.
The whining is coming not from the content providers, but from the cable companies, because they're the obsolete ones getting screwed. Viacom doesn't care because the more streams there are (regardless of shared login) the more $ they get to charge advertisers on OTT.
It's simple math: a+b = cable companies just need to die already.
-SM
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More Often? (Score:5, Interesting)
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It seems like I'm being asked to log into my Roku apps on a monthly basis already, how much more do they want?
And we all know how much fun it is to log into an app with a set-top box! HBO GO and a few other services (like Amazon Prime) allow you to get an activation code. But other accounts want your full email and password with the crappiest text interface ever.
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I have HBO Now which I subscribed to via iTunes and they recently did some kind of authorization reset which blanked my access on both of my Apple TVs.
It was stupid and frustrating on many levels:
1) HBO web site wouldn't process the authorization code using my iPhone as the browser. I had to drag my laptop out to the living room to do it. Really? I would guess that HBO subscription and iPhone ownership are highly correlated. How do this not "just work"?
2) Why would I lose access on my AppleTV when I sub
So (Score:2)
Is anybody using YouTube TV? How is it for $35 a month? I only feel moderately bad about streaming shows without commercial...
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Is anybody using YouTube TV? How is it for $35 a month? I only feel moderately bad about streaming shows without commercial...
Why, are is there something wrong with you?
I avoid products I see advertised, so by avoiding adverts I am doing the advertisers a favour as I would be more hostile towards them and active avoid their products if the ad wasn't blocked.
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It's alright. If you aren't trying to stay right on top of live tv, and AFAICT the shows get "released" at some point after the original air-date, and are then ad-free for playback. Also, if you *recorded the show (prior to it being released), just like with traditional DVR's your can skip ahead/back.
It's much more convenient from a PC than mobile, or "casted" mobile. Though that's true for almost everything.
* recorded = "Added to your Library, and it has aired."
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But why would you want to pay 5 bucks for, well, nothing?
First Cox starts doing bandwidth caps (Score:5, Insightful)
Cable TV's attempt to boost Netflix subs is coming (Score:5, Funny)
Cable's idea of DRM is passwords? (Score:2)
Wow I remember cable. People are still on it?
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Sure. I have one on my computer for internet, WiFi is way too crowded where I live.
per device fees and must rent our gateway (Score:2)
per device fees and must rent our gateway will fix it and boost profits on internet only subs.
Deck chairs on the Titanic (Score:2)
It is blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that cable subscriptions are way, way down. The gig is up for these bandits. It took me a while to figure it out but I went from paying about $140 a month for 200 channels of crap to:
1) An $18 Mohu Leaf OTA antenna. One time cost and picks up about 35 channels, many of them in fantastic resolution. Monthly cost: $0
2) Plex media server. Free to install and use. Lots of channels with zero commercials. Monthly cost: $0
3) Pluto. Another free media app with lots
Bullshit (Score:2)
Millions of customers lost to password sharing? Pure bullshit.
Maybe those customers are tired of getting fucked over by the cable companies and the past few weeks have been the last straw.
Cable companies are losing money and are desperate to make it up. Bullshit and fuck you, that is insulting to our intelligence.
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Millions of customers lost to password sharing? Pure bullshit.
Maybe those customers are tired of getting fucked over by the cable companies and the past few weeks have been the last straw.
Cable companies are losing money and are desperate to make it up. Bullshit and fuck you, that is insulting to our intelligence.
"Losing Money" = "Less Obscene Profits"
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Ahh yes, I forgot to run it through my "business-speak" translator.
Fine (Score:2)
Back to Bittorrent it is. *shrug*
Least afford it?!? (Score:3)
... It's a growing problem that could cost pay-TV companies millions of subscribers -- and billions of dollars in revenue -- when they can least afford it. ...
My office mates are looking at me funny, because I quite literally laughed out loud when I read that.
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You mean people like Verizon, AT&T, Cox Cable, Time Warner, T-Mobile, Sprint corporate officers, board members and stock owners?
They're the marauding thieves in this country.
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If everyone paid for their own share, those of us who are honest wouldnâ(TM)t have to pay extra to subsidize the free loaders. I canâ(TM)t wait til everything is a la carte also, so I can pay for a particular NFL game or ESPN in general without subsidizing shit like PBS or CSPAN
The way things are going at ESPN, PBS and CSPAN are going to be subsidizing ESPN.
Dunno if you caught pics of NFL stadiums lately, but lots of fans are showing up disguised as empty seats.
The networks and the NFL have an obvious vested interest in not showing that, but even in last Sundays Steelers-Patriots game (probably the two best teams in the NFL right now, that had huge playoff seeding implications), I caught one aerial view that for a few short seconds showed a shitload of empty seats. The network cu
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You can get PBS ala-antenna
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You are taking the "content" as a given. It's not. The content doesn't materialize of its own accord from the vacuum. Someone produces it, and unless they are making art for art's sake, they have an expected return.
Re:Hahaha no. (Score:4, Insightful)
I won't buy the disc. I won't pirate it, either, but when AMC makes $1.40 per subscriber that can DVR every show on AMC, paying $25.00 for a season of The Walking Dead is absurd. Instead, they get nothing from me except what Netflix pays them, and I watch the full season when it becomes available there. I'm a patient person, and don't give a crap about spoilers, and I have plenty of other shows to watch in the meantime.
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It will actually stop the bleeding.
An empty carcass does not bleed anymore.