You know how all your friends are currently using your Netflix login details? Netflix knows it too, and is testing a new way of allowing account sharing, but for an additional fee.
Sharing your Netflix password with someone for free outside your household may soon become a thing of the past.
In a news release posted to its website Wednesday, the streaming giant announced that it will begin testing ways to make users sharing an account outside the household pay for the additional members.
What Netflix is saying
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” the company said in a statement. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared.”
The company stated that the improper sharing of accounts outside the household has affected Netflix’s “ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members,”
The company’s terms of service say an account “may not be shared with individuals beyond your household,” a rule often flouted by subscribers.
- The test run of new prices to “add an extra member” on standard and premium plans will take place first in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
- Those who have been illicitly sharing passwords in those three countries can transfer profile information to new accounts or to the “extra member” subscriber accounts.
- “We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films,” Netflix said. “We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world.”
What you should know
- Netflix’s overall revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 was nearly $7.7 billion, up from roughly $6.64 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
- Netflix’s yearly revenue in 2021 was about $30 billion dollars, maintaining the company’s extraordinary year-over-year increase over the prior decade.
- The video streaming site’s overall revenue reached around $30 billion in 2021, up from 1.67 billion US dollars a decade ago.
- Netflix has also suspended its service in Russia, a company spokesperson said. “Given the circumstances on the ground, we have decided to suspend our service in Russia,” the spokesperson said.
