In a letter to shareholders, Netflix explained that its drive to stop password sharing hadn’t resulted in mass cancellations and that tightened restrictions were working. “The cancel reaction was low, and while we’re still in the early stages of monetization, we’re seeing healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships as well as the uptake of our extra member feature,” the letter read.

Also Read: Meta & Microsoft Release AI Language Tool For Commercial Use

In addition to restricting account sharing, Netflix has begun offering “paid sharing”, allowing subscribers to add an “extra member” to their account for $8 a month — an option now available in over 100 countries.

Netflix has also confirmed that its $10 basic plan will be canceled in the United States and United Kingdom. At the same time, restricted password sharing will continue to roll out in countries such as India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Croatia.

The post Netflix Adds 6 Million New Users After Password Crackdown appeared first on Tech Magazine.

The Exchange stars Rawan Mahdi, Mona Hussain, and Hussain Almahdi. It takes the audience on a journey through the trials and tribulations of navigating a male-centric industry during a time when Kuwait’s stock market was booming.

Written by Nadia Ahmad, Anne Sobel, and Adam Sobel and directed by Jasem AlMuhanna and Karim El Shenawy, the six-part series offers a refreshing take on our current obsession with everything from the 1980s.

Also Read: 5 Best Video Streaming Services In The Middle East

“Having grown up in Kuwait and surrounded by independent women my whole life, this production is close to my heart. Rawan and Mona perfectly depict the struggles women experienced back in the 80s, and I can’t wait for the world to see their characters’ stories unfold on the big screen. Besides the plot, I am excited for the audience to see how we brought this era to life, which brings together local and international expertise in a high-production masterpiece, shot and produced entirely in Kuwait,” says the show’s producer, Abdullah Boushahri.

The Exchange is Netflix’s second original Kuwaiti series. In September 2022, the platform released The Cage, a comedy-drama about the ups and downs of marital life.

The post New Kuwaiti-Based Netflix Series Features Women In Lead Roles appeared first on Tech Magazine.

“The Fund for Creative Equity helps the industry as a whole to have a much more dynamic, interesting, multidimensional representation of women, and this is one step in the journey to enabling more women to tell their stories and have new audiences discover their work”, said Nuha El Tayeb, Director Content Acquisitions, Middle East, and Turkey at Netflix.

Also Read: Disney+ Confirms Its Middle East Launch Date

The one-off grant will go to five projects across the MENA region:

• The Mother Of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir (Morocco): A documentary focusing on the 1981 Bread Riots in Morocco and its impact on the director’s family and contemporary society.
• My Name Is Clara by Sarra Abidi (Tunisia): A story of a call center operator named Ayda, who is living an ordinary and repetitive life.
• Manity by Tania El Khoury (Lebanon): An examination of the relationship between an 11-year-old son and his father as they go bird hunting.
• The Day Vladimir Died by Jana Wehbe (Lebanon): A story of an old man who spends his time checking the obituaries page and attending funerals.
• From The Other Shore by Diala Kachmar (Lebanon): A movie about two handicapped friends who navigate life together.

This is AFAC’s second collaboration with Netflix, and it aligns perfectly with its mission to promote diversity of voices and narratives. “More and more Arab female filmmakers are creating moving images that have the power to shed light on the realities of the region,” said Rima Mismar, AFAC’s current Executive Director.

The post Netflix To Give 5 Arab Female Filmmakers A $250,000 Grant appeared first on Tech Magazine.

“When you hit the ‘Play Something’ button, you’ll be instantly met with a series or film we know you’ll love based on what you’ve watched before,” writes Johnson in the official announcement.

If Netflix doesn’t get it right on the first try, you can simply click “Play Something Else” and get:

• Different series or film.
• Series or film you’re already watching.
• Series or film on your list.
• Unfinished series or film.

For now, the new feature is available only for smart TV, but testing for mobile devices is planned to start soon.

How To Use The “Play Something” Feature

1. Launch the Netflix app on your smart TV.
2. Select the “Press Something” button located:
   • Underneath your profile name.
   • In the tenth row on your Netflix homepage.
   • In the navigation menu on the left of the screen.
3. Press the “Play Something Else” button if you want another suggestion.

Netflix users who rely on screen readers will be pleased to know that the new feature fully supports Text-to-Speech (TTS).

Also Read: Netflix Is Testing A Way To Stop Its Users From Sharing Their Passwords

With the “Play Something” feature, Netflix becomes one step closer to the traditional cable experience, whose inherent element of surprise is both one of its biggest downsides and benefits.

Now that users can tell Netflix to pick something to watch for them, they are far more likely to discover hidden gems they might otherwise miss or become hooked on the company’s exclusive content. The latter is especially important for the streaming giant because exclusive content is what keeps subscribers subscribed.

The post Netflix Introduces “Play Something” Shuffle Feature appeared first on Tech Magazine.

“This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so,” said Netflix spokesperson Ebony Turner. Users who see the prompt are asked to verify account ownership by a code, sent via email or text. At the time of writing, the test seems to be rolled out more or less randomly, but that could quickly change in the future.

Netflix, which now has more than 200 million subscribers around the world, said that users who are unable to verify account ownership wouldn’t be able to continue using the service unless they purchase their own subscription.

While this measure is unlikely to stop password sharing among friends and extended family members, who can simply share the required authorization code, but it may at least slow down password sharing on various online forums and dark web sites.

The decision to crack down on password sharing is likely a reaction to the growing competition Netflix is facing, with streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and Hulu offering their own original TV shows and movies.

Also Read: Netflix Is Introducing Sleep Timer Functionality On Android

Back in 2016, Netflix co-founder and chief executive Reed Hasting said that password sharing was something Netflix had to learn to live with because the amount of legitimate password sharing between family members was too high. Even in 2019, chief product officer Greg Peters stated that the streaming service had no plans to change its stance on password sharing.

Right now, Netflix’s terms of service state that the service is intended “for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.” It’s not really clear whether Netflix means a physical household, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see the company clarify its terms of service if the new account ownership verification prompt becomes a standard feature.

The post Netflix Is Testing A Way To Stop Its Users From Sharing Their Passwords appeared first on Tech Magazine.

This feature is currently available only in the Android version of the Netflix app, and only select Android users have access to it. If you see a clock icon in the top-right corner (right next to the Chromecast icon) while playing a video, that means you’re one of the lucky people who have been randomly picked by Netflix to test the sleep timer.

To activate it, you simply need to tap it and choose the preferred time setting. You can pick between 15, 30, and 45 minutes, and there’s also an option to stop playback at the end of whatever content is playing at the moment.

In November 2020, Android developers and power users at XDA Developers were among the first to receive the news about Netflix potentially adding a sleep timer feature in a future update when the following string was discovered in the resource files of Netflix 7.82.1:

<string name=”sleep_timer_button”>Timer</string>

Of course, Netflix isn’t the only streaming service that has introduced this feature (Spotify, Pandora, and other music streaming services have sleep timers as well). But none of its direct competitors, including Amazon Video, Hulu, and Display+, have made it possible for their users to set a sleep timer yet, so it definitely takes the lead there.

Also Read: Wi-Fi 6 – Everything You Need To Know

Besides stopping your Android device from streaming video content until its battery reaches zero, the sleep timer can be useful if you like to watch Netflix while cooking, reminding you that your baked potatoes are ready. Once the feature leaves the testing phase and becomes globally available, we’re sure that Android users will come up with many more use cases for it.

The post Netflix Is Introducing Sleep Timer Functionality On Android appeared first on Tech Magazine.