Haven’t watched Netflix in a while? Company will cancel accounts for inactive members
Netflix’s famed “are you still watching?” message might carry new weight for subscribers in the coming weeks.
The streaming giant announced Thursday it will cancel the memberships of subscribers who haven’t watched anything in more than a year unless they confirm they’d like to keep their account.
“Members will start seeing these emails or in app notifications this week,” according to a company announcement. “If they don’t confirm that they want to keep subscribing, we’ll automatically cancel their subscription.”
The purge applies to anyone who hasn’t streamed a television episode or movie for a year since they joined, or anyone who stopped has watching for more than two years.
It’s likely to be a drop in the bucket for the streaming giant, which netted close to 16 million new members in the first three months of 2020 — bringing it to grand total of 183 million global subscribers, Vulture reported.
According to Thursday’s announcement, there are a few hundred thousand of these inactive accounts equating to about .05% of Netflix’s overall member base.
The sudden cancellations are just its way of keeping people from “paying for something they’re not using,” the company said.
The standard subscription rate for Netflix is $12.99 per month, according to its website.
Anyone who changes their mind within 10 months of canceling will get their profiles, viewing preferences and account details back, according to Netflix.
“In the meantime, we hope this new approach saves people some hard earned cash,” the announcement states.
This story was originally published May 21, 2020 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Haven’t watched Netflix in a while? Company will cancel accounts for inactive members."
