Product Feature - Device Management

Did you know that between 20% and 30% of Netflix customers are sharing their password with people they don’t live with? And that's just the edge of the iceberg, as this apparent epidemic of account sharing is reinforced by a culture of password sharing among family and friends.

Netflix’s content offering is desirable enough for people to jump through hoops to get a hold of it. Yet, account sharing uses increased bandwidth without providing any additional revenue for a new user. And that’s a big deal.

We built our Device Management functionality for Media Manager and the App Platform. Solutions that are currently available on the market to limit or prevent account sharing – involving IP limitations – are generally invasive if not annoying for the end-users. This is why we have chosen a device-based limitation workflow instead.

Simplestream customers can enable a device limit on accounts, choosing how many devices to allow. Thus, creating a restriction on the number of devices that an account can stream to, allowing for a seamless experience across multiple touch points but stopping an account from being passed around across an unlimited number of households.

Device Management can be further refined and customised, for instance by setting a restriction on how often a device can be removed and added. This means that end-users can still update their fleet of devices in due course. Think of that moment when you pick up the newest smartphone or the latest console generation.

Furthermore, by setting a limit on the number of devices normal users will scarcely ever need to change their device settings, even in multi-person households with multiple devices. This also has the added benefit of allowing for further control by the account holder. In situations where their account is being unknowingly shared, they will now be empowered to remove those devices, forcing account ‘hitchhikers’ to get their own accounts.

Device Management is a simple and elegant solution to an endemic problem of account sharing amongst streaming platforms. It adds value to a streaming solution, especially in the current highly competitive OTT ecosystem.