The days of password sharing and discreetly goofing on your ex’s Netflix account will soon be over.
The subscription service appears to be cracking down more on users who, for whatever reason, have not created their accounts.
The company disclosed during its quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, that it will soon start charging consumers an extra monthly cost for those who have shared their usernames and passwords.
The decision has been based upon a pilot programme that has already been implemented in Latin America and levies extra fees for what they consider to be ‘extra user’ sub-accounts – i.e. users residing outside of your household who secretly check in to watch a series or two.
“Finally, we’ve landed on a thoughtful approach to monetizing account sharing,” the company said in their report. “We’ll start rolling this out more effectively starting early in 2023.”
“Following consumer input, we will allow borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their account, sharers to manage their devices easily and create sub-accounts (‘extra member’) if they wish to pay for family or friends.”
“We expect the profile transfer option for borrowers to be especially popular in countries with our lower-priced ad-supported plan,” the company said.
In other words, each person listed under “Who’s Watching?” will cost you extra money if it turns out they don’t live with you.
The streaming service is yet to reveal the price it will charge users for the “additional user” service, but if it’s anything like the pilot programme in Latin America, it will adhere to the “one-quarter of the basic rate” concept.
Though not certain, it would equate to roughly £1.75 more per month ($3-4 in the US).
You have until the beginning of 2023 to remove any traces of previous users from your Netflix login, so don’t freak out just yet.
The feature is already available in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Previously, under the “add a home” programme, which started in August, each Netflix account had a single home where subscribers could access the service on any device, regardless of their payment option.
The choice to “buy additional homes” was also available.
