GRANNY'S SCREEN COULD GO BLANK AS NETFLIX IS LOOKING TO CLAMP DOWN ON CREDENTIAL SHARING

If you have a Netflix account like me then chances are you share it with members of your family, I know I do as my daughter currently lives away in Wales and she uses my account to catch up on episodes of her favourite shows. In fact the whole reason I got Netflix in the first place was to cut the cord with conventional broadcast TV and because of the flexibility of online streaming from anywhere in the world.

Well it seems all of that may be about to come to an end as apparently Netflix has had enough of what it see's as lost revenues, so if you innocently share your account with Granny then chances are she may be getting her services cut off in the not to distant future.

The provider has revealed that it is currently monitoring people who hand out their passwords to family and friends to use and the company is looking at ways to close the loophole which allows passwords to be shared.

The cost of the service ranges from between £5.99 and £11.99 and the most costly option allows you to view on up to four screens at a time so long as they know the password, but after falling revenues partly down to the investments made in programming by the company in recent years, they are now looking at closing the loophole.

This of course would risk alienating customers who are paying for the service with some declaring that they will simply close their accounts if it happens, a move which Netflix would want to avoid at all costs as they rely on the revenue to survive.

The real problem is not so much with families sharing passwords but with some groups who are making tidy profits at the expense of Netflix by reselling single accounts on a multi screen subscription at a reduced monthly cost.

Netlfix say's that it is looking towards Artificial Intelligence (AI) software to solve the problem, with one possibility coming in the form of video software provider Synamedia who have already showcased a fully working behavioural analysis solution which can spot patterns in where and how users log on to the service, flagging them for a human to take a look at.

The software monitors for what it considers to be fraudulent activity, then it alerts staff so they can act upon its findings and have final say on if you loose your account.

The amount of money Netflix claims it is loosing as a result of this kind of credential sharing is not to be sniffed at as losses could be as much as £7.6 billion by 2021 the firm claims.

Ironically I pay for a Netflix subscription I barely watch, my daughter watches from Wales and my son occasionally watches in between lectures and lessons at Uni. Neither do so from home.