No more using your friend’s sister’s account — Netflix’ free password-sharing likely to end by April
Just how many of you have our own Netflix accounts? It’s simply more convenient and pocket-friendly to borrow your sibling’s or friend’s or sibling’s friend’s sibling’s account than to invest in your own. But the streaming app has had enough of that. Say goodbye to free password-sharing because now you may have to pay to stream your favourite TV shows in HD.
On Thursday, Netflix said it expected to “roll out paid sharing more broadly” later in the first quarter of this year in a letter to shareholders. This means that by the end of March, it’s possible that you might have to start paying to access Netflix’ content. It first hinted at a crackdown on password sharing in July last year after its first subscriber loss in over a decade — 200,000 users — during the first quarter of 2022, according to Insider.
With a high reach where account sharing is concerned — affecting over 100 million households — the streaming giant claimed it “undermines” its “long term ability to invest in and improve Netflix”. It added that though the terms of use already limited account use to a single household, it “recognises this is a change for members who share their account more broadly”.
“As we roll out paid sharing, members in many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with,” the shareholder letter read.
A shared password trial has already been conducted in some regions in America where it cost $2 or $3 to add a member account for someone outside one’s household. As a result, some Latin Americans cancelled their subscription due to extra charges. Netflix expects near-term engagement to go down but also for the overall revenue to improve as people with borrowed accounts start subscribing themselves.
