Netflix has developed two new tools in response to password sharing, one of them an extra fee. The tools will initially be tested in three countries.
Password sharing on Netflix
Netflix's terms and conditions stipulate that an account cannot be shared with individuals outside of the subscriber's household, but so far the company has largely ignored the widespread practice.
Netflix's Standard and Premium tiers let users have 2 or 4 simultaneous streams at home or away.
The company had previously introduced a prompt to encourage add-on user profiles to verify the account via the registered email or phone number. It is now taking it two steps further with two new tools.
- "So for the last year we’ve been working on ways to enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more. And over the next few weeks, we’ll launch and test two new features for our members in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru," said Chengyi Long, Director of Product Innovation, Netflix.
In Netflix's own words:
Add an Extra Member: Members on our Standard and Premium plans will be able to add sub accounts for up to two people they don’t live with - each with their own profile, personalized recommendations, login and password - at a lower price: 2,380 CLP in Chile, 2.99 USD in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
Transfer Profile to a New Account: Members on our Basic, Standard, and Premium plans can enable people who share their account to transfer profile information either to a new account or an Extra Member sub account - keeping the viewing history, My List, and personalized recommendations.
In Costa Rica, Netflix is priced at 9, 13 and 16 dollars per month so an additional fee of 3 dollars is cheaper than making a new account.
Netflix said that the test is designed to provide feedback on the usefulness of the new tools before a possible global rollout.Netflix had 222 million subscribers worldwide at the end of 2021.
