Netflix will start cancelling inactive members’ subscriptions

CNBC:

Netflix will start asking customers who haven’t used its platform in the past year if they want to keep their subscriptions, the company announced Thursday. If a customer doesn’t respond, Netflix will automatically cancel the subscription.

“We’re asking everyone who has not watched anything on Netflix for a year since they joined to confirm they want to keep their membership. And we’ll do the same for anyone who has stopped watching for more than two years,” Eddy Wu, director of product innovation, said in a statement.

This is a great PR move by Netflix. According to Netflix, “inactive accounts represent less than a half of one percent of its overall member base,” so it won’t affect the company’s bottom line by much but they get a nice “we’re the good guys!” bump out of it.