The streaming giant Netflix will start his stop sharing passwords in the first quarter of this year, following the release of the company’s earnings report to shareholders last week. The practice of sharing passwords with people outside the subscriber’s household will become more complex and will probably involve a additional cost to share a single subscription in multiple places.
Stop sharing your password, talk Netflix
“While our terms of use limit Netflix use to one household, we recognize that this is a change for members who share their account more broadly,” Netflix said in its shareholder report.
“With the introduction of 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. As is the case today, all members will be able to watch on the go, whether on a TV or mobile device.”
Based on a trial of the new stricter rules in some Central American countries e southern last year, the company admitted it was expecting one negative reaction in the short run.
“As we go through this transition — and as some users stop watching because they don’t convert to extra members or fully paying accounts — short-term engagement, as measured by third parties, such as Nielsen’s The Gauge, could be negatively impacted” , reads the press release.
“However, we believe the trend will be similar to what we’ve seen in Latin America, with engagement growing over time as we continue to deliver great programming and as borrowers sign up for their accounts.”
The new model could charge Netflix users around $4 extra per month, based on initial testing by the streaming service. According to what was revealed, subscribers had no restrictions on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops, to allow legitimate users to access their accounts even on the go.
But the new system could terminate access to your account to watch a Netflix show at a friend’s or relative’s house, as well as at sharing a single subscription in multiple homes.
How will the new system work?
Netflix’s director of product innovation, Chengyi Long, explained in a blog post updated in October how the new system might work. A singolo account Netflix it will be allowed to only one house, but it can be used on multiple devices. To add more households a will apply additional monthly fee (in most Latin American countries it was $2.99). While traveling, the account will only be accessible via tablet, laptop or mobile phone. Subscribers will be able to log in to remove unwanted families from their account.
“The current widespread sharing of accounts among households undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve our service,” Netflix said. “For this reason we have carefully explored different ways to allow those who want to share their account to pay a little more”.
In 2022, Netflix lost 200,000 customers in the first quarter alone and admitted to expecting to lose more two million in the second quarter.
At the moment, Long has not explained how Netflix plans to implement the new system.
In trials in Latin America, if a change in the position of an account used for more than two weeksthe owner receives a in-app notification. The notification offered him the option of changing his home address or paying a fee to add the new address.
In an interview the co-CEO of Netflix, Greg Peters, admitted that the ban on shared passwords “is not going to be a universally popular move.” Indeed, it appears that the company will start enforcing the new regime by giving customers who continue to share accounts “a slight nudge” to pay a extra for the use of several families.