The end of free Netflix password sharing is coming soon

Netflix is ​​stepping up its efforts to get viewers to download for free: in the next two months or so, it will start charging accounts for sharing passwords, instituting a system that adds fees for “additional member” subaccounts when people outside a household use the subscription. .

After years of lax password sharing, Netflix last year began testing ways to “monetize account sharing” after it suffered its biggest subscriber losses in a decade. In addition to password sharing fees, Netflix has also launched cheaper ad-supported subscriptionshoping to entice more people to pay if they don’t have to pay as much.

Netflix’s dominance in video streaming — not to mention years of uninterrupted subscriber growth — has caused nearly every major Hollywood media company to funnel billions of dollars into their own streaming operations. These so-called streaming wars caused a wave of new services, including Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount More and Apple TV Plus. This flood of streaming options has complicated the number of services you have to use (and, often, pay for) to watch your favorite shows and movies online.

Now, feeling the heat of intensifying competition, Netflix is ​​pursuing strategies it had rejected for years, including a crackdown on account sharing.

How much will password sharing cost?

The company has not yet specified the prices for these new fillers. But the royalty system was already tested in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru. In these countries, the charges amount to roughly a quarter of the price of a Standard package, on average.

If Netflix sticks to this practice, each additional member subaccount in the US would cost around $3.50 to $4, but a fairly wide range has been tested. If US fees follow Chile’s, for example, sub-accounts would cost up to $4.43.

When will Netflix start charging me for sharing my password?

Netflix announced on Thursday that it would begin rolling out account sharing fees beyond its test countries before the end of March and that a full global rollout would take a few quarters. The company also said the rollout will be gradual across its markets: Netflix won’t start billing everyone globally at once, like flipping a switch, but rather start in a selection of locations and go from there. .

He did not specify which countries will be first or exactly how long the new fee will take to fully launch globally.

“We’re ready to roll them out later this quarter. We’ll be scaling that up a bit as we work on country sets,” Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said Thursday. “But we will definitely see that happen over the next two quarters.”

How will Netflix apply these fees?

Netflix hasn’t detailed how it will enforce paid password sharing once the fee rolls out widely. Its application in testing in Latin America varied, according to one report.

Netflix’s help center pages say the service detects an account outbreak by looking at IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity from devices logged into the same account.

Netflix states that if your account is persistently accessed from a location outside of your household, or if someone logs into your account from a device not associated with the household, Netflix may request primary owner of the account to verify. To do this, Netflix sends a link to a four-digit verification code to the email address or phone number associated with the primary account. This code must be entered into the device within 15 minutes or you will need to request another one.

However, Netflix may change this process as the Account Sharing Program rolls out.

Can I share a low-cost Basic account with additional members?

Not likely. If Netflix meets the standards for shared account testing in Latin America, Netflix would only offer this “additional member” fee on its Standard ($15.50 per month in the US) and Premium ($20 per month in US) plans. USA), both of which allow more than one simultaneous stream.

During testing, Netflix did not offer an option for this “additional member” fee on its Basic plans, which are now available in some countries in two options: a more expensive Basic account without ads and a “Basic with ads ” cheaper. In the United States, the basic tier without ads is $10 per month and the tier with ads is $7.

Both of these basic plans limit your viewing to a single simultaneous stream, which makes account sharing functionally difficult.

Will I lose all my referrals if I get kicked out of someone else’s account or have to open a sub-account?

Netflix has created a profile transfer feature, which it launched the day before revealing its plans for a wider rollout of account sharing fees. Profile transfer was a key component of password sharing charges tested in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. This feature allows a profile created on a shared Netflix account to transfer its watch history and recommendations to a new independent account. This new account can then be added to someone else’s Standard or Premium subscription plan as an additional member (for a fee), or they can sign up for their own subscription.

How did Netflix come up with these fees?

The password-sharing fee system Netflix will roll out appears to be modeled after a system it has been testing in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru since March.

Then in July, Netflix announced that it would test a different method in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. This test established an account’s primary residence as the “domicile” for membership. If the service detects streaming in additional homes for more than two weeks, it prompts the account to set up – and pay for – additional “homes”, with a limit on the number of additional homes you can add based on how much you already pay for Netflix. Netflix seems to be avoiding this model in favor of the other it has tested.