Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

User Impact and Frustration

  • Parents and caregivers relied on casting for quick control from phones, especially with kids, lost remotes, or elderly users whom others had set up with casting.
  • Travelers and hotel/Airbnb/VRBO guests used casting to avoid logging into TVs; now they must sign in on unfamiliar devices, risking forgotten logouts and ruined profiles.
  • Some see this as another example of “hostile” UX changes after account-sharing crackdowns, region locking, and per‑household enforcement.

Speculated Motivations

  • Several commenters attribute the change to licensing: every device/usage pattern triggers different rights and ad-reporting rules, and casting complicates attribution.
  • Others think it’s about ads: Netflix likely charges more for ads on TVs than on phones; casting lets “mobile” impressions actually be watched on TVs.
  • Another camp believes it’s about stopping informal account sharing (e.g., friends casting to a TV without the TV owner having an account).
  • A piracy-based explanation (casting as a capture vector) is raised but strongly disputed as technically inaccurate and irrelevant to high‑res rips.

Ads, Licensing, and Control

  • People who worked in streaming say feature removals are “almost always” licensing- or ad-driven, not random product decisions.
  • Casting has already been disabled for ad-supported tiers; commenters note that remaining support is now limited to some legacy Chromecasts and ad‑free plans, reinforcing the ad‑economics theory.
  • Many see Netflix as trying to fully “own” the UX: pushing users into native TV apps, refusing Apple TV’s unified “Up Next” integration, and possibly moving toward Netflix‑branded hardware.

Shift Toward Piracy and Local Media

  • Multiple users say this, plus ads and fragmentation, pushes them back to torrents, Plex/Jellyfin, or Jellyfin+Kodi setups; they find piracy now easier and less frustrating than “legit” viewing.
  • Others retreat to 4K Blu-ray or simply hook PCs directly to TVs, valuing predictable control over features that can’t be remotely disabled.

Smart TVs, Apps, and the ‘Smart Home’ Backlash

  • The change reinforces broader resentment of app‑ and cloud‑tethered devices (smart TVs, robot vacuums, thermostats) that can be arbitrarily degraded or shut off.
  • Some call for regulation to require local controls and interoperability (e.g., mandatory casting/AirPlay support), arguing that “vote with your wallet” has failed in these markets.