Netflix are trying to put an end to password sharing, and starting next year users will be charged extra for sharing their account.
That’s right, Netflix plan to reduce password sharing and get freeloading viewers to get on their own plans. The streaming giant will begin charging accounts extra for password sharing with a system that adds fees to your plan for “extra member” subaccounts when people outside your household use your membership.
On how much will be charged, the streamer didn’t specify but this scheme is already being tested in a few Latin American countries and charges a fee for each extra member worth roughly one-quarter of the price of a “standard” Netflix plan.
If Netflix sticks to that practice, then each extra member subaccount in the US would cost between about $3.50 and $4.
“We’ve landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we’ll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023,” Netflix wrote in a letter to shareholders. “After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create subaccounts (“extra member”), if they want to pay for family or friends.”
The company has been relatively laissez-faire about password sharing. However, after reporting it’s first ever year over year decline in subscribers, something needed to change
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At the time executives estimated that 100 million households were streaming without paying.
The rise of competitors in the streaming space, including major players like Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, HBO Max and Apple TV means Netflix needed to make a decision on how to keep and grow customers in the streaming wars.
In January, Netflix said it was raising prices on plans to “continue to offer a wide variety of quality entertainment options.”
The basic plan starts at $9.99, the popular Standard plan supporting high-definition content jumped to $15.49, while the Premium plan, which offers Ultra HD and supports up to four screens simultaneously, increased to $19.99 a month.
