The streaming giant Netflix is going to start cracking down on password sharing early next year. Netflix did warn you this was coming. In April, as the company was losing subscribers and its stock plummeted, executives revealed that, by their own estimate, around 30 million households in the US and Canada were accessing Netflix through shared passwords. Netflix new update: Customers to pay extra for sharing passwords.
Now, after testing a handful of approaches to curb account sharing, they’ve announced new features that they hope will encourage people to start paying up. “We’re trying to come up with a range of options that supports customer choice,” Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters said Tuesday during the company’s quarterly business update for investors.
Netflix’s first solution is for moochers who are ready to take the plunge and pay for their own subscription perhaps even the just-announced ad-supported membership plan that’s cheaper and coming soon. Anyone who has been watching Netflix programming through a personalized profile on someone else’s account can now transfer that profile to their own account.
The feature, which began rolling out to users on Monday, helps preserve a person’s data, like their settings and viewing history, so that the Netflix algorithm will know to continue serving up, say, new episodes of Selling Sunset or the latest teen rom-com. The streamer will also give its subscribers the opportunity to be charitable with their freeloading friends and family.
Beginning next year, subscribers will have the option to pay a little bit more money to add “extra members” to their plan. The company hasn’t said how much it will cost for subscribers in the US to add these subaccounts to their existing plan, but in the countries where it tested the feature earlier this year, it cost less than $3 per month.
Netflix essentially wants an account to only be available to people who live together in a single household. Each account supports up to five profiles, so every member of the family can personalize their viewing experience. But family or friends who live outside the household will need to either sign up for their own account or be added as an “extra member.”
Also Read: Rishab Shetty will make movie under Allu Arjun banner
Also Read: RCB release these 3 top players for IPL 2023
How exactly Netflix will crack down on subscribers who share accounts outside of their households remains to be seen, but Rest of World reported this spring that in Peru, where Netflix tested the “extra member” feature, users were asked to validate their accounts.
Comments are closed.