Product Feature - Control Account Sharing with Device Management

Simplestream continues to improve their offering on the already feature rich App Platform with a constant stream of new features and upgrades. One of the recent updates has enabled an easy-to-use Device Management feature for Simplestream customers.

An estimated 37% of Netflix customers share their passwords with people they don’t live with. While this number may seem high it comes as no shock as there is a strong cultural perception of streaming services as something to be shared amongst family members, friends and former partners who forgot to sign you out.

Account sharing is a major question for any streaming service as additional users on a single account not only cost the service a possible customer but also drawn additional expenses from streamed content. There is no simple answer to this question as users carry the expectation of being able to share their services and any attempt to enforce household only use would be inherently invasive and likely flawed in approach.

The Simplestream App Platform’s Device Management feature is the simple answer to this difficult question. As an optional feature, Simplestream customers can enable a device limit on accounts, the limit per account being determined by the customer. Thus creating a restriction on the number of devices that an account can stream to, allowing for a seamless experience across devices but stopping an account from being passed around across an unlimited amount of households.

Device Management can be further refined & customised by setting a restriction on how often a device can be removed and added, meaning accounts can still update their devices when they pick up the newest iPhone or the latest console generation.

Device Management is a simple and elegant solution to an endemic problem of account sharing amongst streaming platforms, especially in the highly competitive time we are currently enduring. By setting a limit on the number of devices legitimate accounts will scarcely need to interact with the feature, even in households where multiple devices are used inside of a family whereas accounts being shared amongst a group, some even unknowingly so to the account holder, will quickly be shut out, requiring those sharing the main account to become customers themselves.