A First Look At The Impact of Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown

Since alerting subscribers in the United States that it would begin to curb password sharing on May 23, 2023, Netflix has had the four single largest days of U.S. user acquisition in the four and a half years that Antenna has been measuring the streaming service. Based on the most current data available, Netflix saw nearly 100,000 daily Sign-ups on both May 26 and May 27.

Average daily Sign-ups to Netflix reached 73k during that period, a +102% increase from the prior 60-day average. These exceed the spikes in Sign-ups Antenna observed during the initial U.S. Covid-19 lockdowns in March and April 2020. Cancels also increased during this period, but not as much as Sign-ups. The ratio of Sign-ups to Cancels since May 23rd is up +25.6% compared to the previous 60-day period. 

These insights are the result of Antenna’s new Acquisition Drivers product which provides Antenna clients with more frequent and rapid delivery of Daily Sign-ups for subscription services. Antenna’s Acquisition Drivers also enables better insight into the impact of various factors—such as pricing promotions, bespoke discounts, etc.—on customer acquisition, ARPU, loyalty, and customer lifetime value. As the streaming industry continues to mature, media brands operating in this more competitive market can benefit from access to these more sophisticated analytics. 

For more detailed information on Antenna’s methodology and definitions of core metrics, please visit http://www.antenna.live/methodology



Brendan Brady is a Content Strategy Associate at Antenna, a measurement and analytics company providing insight into purchase behavior and subscription metrics across the new media landscape.