After months of indicating it planned to crack down on password sharing, Netflix has finally confirmed it will begin to do so early next year.
The streaming giant announced during its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that it will charge subscribers an added monthly fee if they share their login credentials starting in early 2023. Â Netflix, which is also simultaneously preparing to launch an ad-supported subscription tier for the first time, said it will let subscribers create sub-accounts as part of its vigorous effort to finally "monetize account sharing" (aka crack down on password sharing).
"We've landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we'll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023", Netflix said in its latest letter to shareholders. "After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts ('extra member') if they want to pay for family or friends.
Netflix continued: "In countries with our lower-priced ad-supported plan, we expect the profile transfer option for borrowers to be especially popular."
Netflix recently introduced a Profile Transfer tool that lets users easily transfer their personalised recommendations, viewing history, and more to a new account. (Pocket-lint has a guide that explains how the feature works.) It also announced last week that it's rolling out its $6.99 per month ad-supported tier, called Ads with Basic, on 3 November in the US, UK, and other countries. Netflix said you can expect ads to last anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds.Â
Keep in mind, earlier this year, Netflix reported losing subscribers for the first time in over 10 years, with its subscriber count falling by another 1.3 million in the US and Canada and 1 million worldwide last quarter.
Netflix is apparently tackling this issue head-on by preventing users from password sharing. It's been conducting tests that push users in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru to pay extra for a sub-account if it believes someone is accessing their subscription outside of their household. It also tested a way for users in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic to buy additional "homes" for accounts outside of their primary household.
Netflix has yet to confirm how much it'll charge subscribers per extra user statting in 2023. Pocket-lint will keep you posted.
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