Netflix will finally launch a major crackdown on account sharing, punishing those who are liberal in their password practices with an extra monthly fee.
Anyone sharing logins will others outside of their household will be slugged an extra fee from “early 2023.”
Netflix first flagged this change in July, trialling a system in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, where users could nominate one household per account, and add extra homes for US$2.99 per house.
Under this system, Netflix will prompt the user to add an extra household for an additional fee when it detects a different IP address attempting to access the account. It’s unclear whether this ‘opt-in’ model will actively block users on unrecognised devices or IP addresses, or just keep prompting them to pay the extra fee.
At the time, Netflix estimated that as many as 100 million homes were sharing subscriptions; given the global user base as of September was 223.1 million, that’s a lot of money Netflix are leaving on the table by turning a blind eye.
“It’s great that our members love Netflix movies and TV shows so much they want to share them more broadly, but today’s widespread account sharing between households undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve our service,” says Netflix’s director of product innovation Chengyi Long.
Netflix is gearing up for this change with its new Profile Transfer feature, introduced this week, that allows users to migrate their profile, complete with viewing history, recommendations and favourites, to a separate account.
Ostensibly for people who move out of sharehouses, family home, or when relationships end, there’s no doubt this is a run up to the planned crackdown.
“No matter what’s going on, let your Netflix profile be a constant in a life full of changes so you can sit back, relax and continue watching right from where you left off,” said Timi Kosztin Product Manager in Netflix’s Product Innovation team.
Password sharing has been an issue for Netflix since launch. In 2016, co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings was laisse faire about it.
“Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with,” he said.
“There’s so much legitimate password sharing – like you sharing with your spouse, with your kids – so there’s no bright line, and we’re doing fine as is.”
