Netflix or similar included in the rent in an HMO?

[Dominik Businger]

Hi all,

 

I'm considering offering "free Netflix included" for my HMO rooms. A lot of people I know like Netflix a lot and at a price of 10£ per month for 4 devices it is also quite affordable. => 20£ for a 6BR-HMO (8 devices) => less than 1£ per week per tenant.

 

With the "Family/Premium"-Plan at 10£ per month you can install Netflix on as many devices as you like and watch on 4 devices at the same time.

 

My questions now are:

 

1. do you offer this and if so, how do you manage access / managa the devices? Or do you only "install/configure" it on the TV in the communal area?
    
2. or have you offered it in the past and stopped? If so, why?

 

I'm looking forward to hearing your opinions or stories around that subject.

 

Cheers,
Dominik

[Dominik Businger]

Hi Richard,

 

thanks for your reply. Yes that would be my plan too. As I don't use Netflix myself  I was hoping someone could tell me about the features of the family-plan.

 

- can the admin (parent-)account allow or disallow devices or child-accounts?

- are all devices logged in with the same account and password?

- can a user copy the password and add another device to watch Neflix on?

 

Cheers,

Dominik

 

 

[tchughes]

 

Sounds like a bit of an admin headache. Wont most tenants already have a login on their parents accounts?

 

 

[Dominik Businger]

@Mortgage_tom: I don't think too many HMO tenants have parents (or friends) with a "Family Netflix Account" they can use. Or am I wrong? Because if that is the case, then offering it as "included" in the HMO is not really an added value anymore.

[tchughes]

 

I don't know the answer. But I have a normal Netflix account upgraded to watch on multiple devices (£7.99 a month). My mother uses my login from another address without any problem. So I can see why other are not doing the same when away at uni.

[Dominik Businger]

Hi all,

 

I did some research/experimenting with a test account.

 

Apparently there is no way to

- assign different passwords/credentials to the users of the family account (except if you restrict the allowed content => parental control)

- anyone can select a different "user" as the "current user" on a device and see that users viewing history etc. (probably not wanted in an HMO either)

- if you have access to a non restricted account (which you have if you can watch netflix without content/age-restrictions), you can change email/password etc. without re-entering the password and hence "steal" the account

 

I'll probably give "Netflix included" a try anyway somewhen in the future and post my findings again here.

 

Cheers,

D.

 

 

[msbadams_hotmail_co_uk]

Sounds like a great idea to me. Netflix is growing all the time and the world of TV watching is changing. People want to consume media on demand so would be a great perk.

[StevoB]

It seems difficult since users are able to access the Account settings page and as mentioned, update all the details. It may be difficult to get your bank to block the transactions if a tenant made off with the account?

 

Maybe you could present the tenants with a Netflix gift card loaded with 6/12 months (whatever their tenancy is) so they can load it up on their own?

 

Amazon Prime Video is another option, though more limited for content, it seems to stop the users on the app from purchasing anything or accessing the account settings. It's only £7.99/mth for up to 4 users. You can also keep the other Prime benefits for yourself

 

There's also NOW TV. I'd suggest getting a free trial on each service and testing them yourself to see whether you're happy with them.

[Nick Parkin]

I'd be very interested in anything similar as I have a single network with about 80 people/devices on it and it would be fantastic to offer tenants added value if I could pay substantially below the price of the value that I am offering. What is described here sounds hard work, but would it be possible for hubbers to collaborate and negotiate a joint contract - say 30 of us asked for a contract for 1000 devices, would Netflix be interested?

[geoffreyweber]

Sounds like a great idea to me, netflix mod apk at TechBigs  is growing all the time and the world of TV watching is changing.

[Mark Rocks]

I'm not sure how much of a draw a Netflix account would be for prospective renters now, just given that almost everybody has their own account or has a profile on a friend's account... but I'd definitely be interested to see whether it has an impact!