Evan Selleck
Netflix has been working towards cracking down on password sharing in the United States for a while, and has now introduced a new fee to share your account with somebody that lives outside your household.
Individual accounts matter to Netflix, just like they do for every other company. Which is why they are cracking down on these accounts sharing passwords with users outside of the household.
Beginning today, Netflix is sending out emails to users who are sharing their account passwords with people outside of their home. The company notes in the email that anyone in that "household" can use Netflix whenever they want, even while on vacation.
Netflix specifically calls out being able to sign into Netflix while using a hotel TV, for instance. The company doesn't see this as sharing a password, as this is defined by households.
There are ways to share Netflix outside of the household, though. The company outlines two very different avenues:
- Buy an extra member: You can share your Netflix account with someone who doesn't live with you for $7.99 per month more.
- Transfer a profile: Anyone on your account can transfer a profile to a new membership that they pay for.
Netflix's Help Center offers details regarding extra members.
Netflix's rules regarding extra members
- Add an extra member: Account owners on a Standard or Premium plan in many countries can share Netflix with someone who doesn't live with them by adding an extra member to their account.
- The account owner will need to purchase an extra member slot, then invite an extra member to use the extra member slot.
- The extra member must be activated in the same country where the account owner created their account.
- Extra members cannot be added to Netflix-included packages or third-party billed accounts.
- Extra members cannot be added to ad-supported plans.
As it stands, Netflix's crackdown on password sharing is expected to go live in the United States beginning in the second quarter of this year. However, Netflix's email doesn't specify when, exactly, the crackdown will begin.
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11 Comments
First, Netflix encouraged users to share accounts.
Second, if you want a 4K HDR picture - the standard resolution for most TVs currently on the market - Netflix requires you to buy a $20/month premium subscription that allows watching on 4 separate devices, simultaneously. If you just want to be able to watch 4K on your one TV in the den, there are no cheaper options.
Netflix wouldn't have to police who's watching if they simply priced their plans on a straight-up per-stream basis, with all subscriptions able to deliver the current 4K HDR standard. If I want to pay for three people, why do they need to care where those three people are? Instead, they're going to take a huge PR hit (and probably subscriber hit) as they roll this ill-considered nickel-and-dime plan out. What morons.
I wonder how Netflix will handle household members who are away from the physical home because they're in college? We're in the US, but our daughter is in school in Vancouver, Canada at the moment. Her permanent home address and voting is still with us - but she's not on "vacation" outside the home or living in a hotel obviously.