Netflix Continues To Crack Down On Password-Sharing
Netflix currently allows its members to share passwords with anyone,
And while this is expected to be supported for some time, there will be additional charges for it, at least in some parts of the world for now. This was stated by the director of product innovation at Netflix Chengy Long. Blog Post that password sharing “impacts our ability to invest in great new TV shows and movies.”
To address the issue,
Long said Netflix is developing a new pricing structure that will allow people outside of the same family to share passwords, but with additional costs associated with doing so. Netflix will be testing this new feature in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru over the next few weeks. “Over the past year, we’ve been working to make it easy and safe for members who live outside of their family, and to pay a little more,” Long said.
Very soon members from these countries will be able to add additional members to their accounts for people they don’t live with for a fee of 2380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru. This is a lower rate than if a new member had been purchased. Users can also transfer their profiles to a new account. You can see a breakdown of the new options below, as written by Netflix. Again, this only applies to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru for now, and for testing purposes only.
- Add an additional member: Members of our Standard and Premium plans will be able to add additional accounts for two people they don’t live with – each with their own profile, personalized recommendations, username, and password – for a lower price: 2380 CLP in Chile, 2, 99. US dollars in Costa Rica and 7.9 pence in Peru;
- Transferring a profile to a new account: Members of our Basic, Standard, and Premium plans can allow people who share their account to transfer profile information to either a new account or an additional member account while retaining their browsing history, “My list” and personal recommendations.
Whether this system or something similar will come to the US
Europe and other parts of the world remain to be seen. But what is it’s clear that Netflix isn’t a big fan of password sharing. “We understand that people have a lot of entertainment options, so we want any new features to be flexible and beneficial to members whose subscriptions fund all of our great TV shows and movies,” Long said. “We will work to understand the usefulness of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world.”
Netflix is starting to crack down on password sharing just as the company announced it had $29.7 billion in revenue and $5.1 billion in 2021 revenue. The company also recently announced an increase in subscription prices.
