YouTube TV Users Note Issues With Family Sharing; Is Service Planning Netflix-Style Crackdown Before Football Season?
One of the reasons that YouTube TV is popular among its users is because of its family-sharing policy. Subscribers can set up a family group of up to five individuals, which allows those family members to build their own content libraries, DVR their own content, and more.
But according to reporting from 9to5Google, some users are now reporting issues with that function. These users say their family members are not able to access their accounts, despite still being listed as part of the group. YouTube TV confirmed that it was aware of these issues and that to work around it customers could delete a family member and re-add them, which would allow them to log in again while the service tries to iron out the bugs.
One reason users could be experiencing issues with their family-sharing feature is that YouTube TV may be tinkering with its account-sharing settings behind the scenes. YouTube TV has always been a bit lax when it comes to enforcing household guidelines for account sharing, but that attitude could be changing as the service prepares for its first season as the host of NFL Sunday Ticket.
Sunday Ticket will allow for unlimited simultaneous streams within a home this season, but outside the home, it will be strictly limited to two concurrent streams. YouTube will use your home network and other settings to determine if you’re using Sunday Ticket at home or not. Sound familiar? It’s very similar to the way Netflix is handling its crackdown on password sharing, which officially began in the United States in May. Netflix asks users to sign in on their main household internet once every month and sends an email notification to the account holder when someone attempts to access it outside that household.
YouTube TV may be trying to strengthen its provisions against account sharing now so that when fall and football season roll around it’s ready. Some estimates have suggested that YouTube TV needs to double the number of customers Sunday Ticket had at its height on DIRECTV just to break even on its deal with the NFL, and if that’s the case, it’s certainly understandable that the company would try everything it could to limit the number of users getting the package for free thanks to a shared password.
YouTube TV may be the next service to try to limit password sharing, but it probably won’t be the last. The streaming industry is in a period of evolution, and streamers are more than willing to borrow successful tactics from competitors. Remember the furor generated last year by Warner Bros. Discovery’s onslaught of content cuts on HBO Max? Well, Disney is now hopping on the content-cut train, noting that WBD managed to turn streaming losses of hundreds of millions of dollars into a $50 million profit in around a year.
If Netflix sees reasonable cancelation rates and a meaningfully higher revenue-per-user number, expect the other major streaming platforms to quickly introduce similar password-sharing restrictions. YouTube TV may be second to market with its own account-sharing limitations, as it tries to entice enough users to NFL Sunday Ticket to make its $2 billion deal with the NFL worthwhile.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV is a live TV streaming service with more than 60 channels for $72.99/month. This plan includes local channels, 32 of the top 35 cable channels, and regional sports networks (RSNs) in select markets. The service includes an unlimited DVR.