Report: Netflix to charge extra for password sharing by end of year

Netflix is preparing to break one of its biggest taboos and introduce ads for cheapear plans. At the same time, the millions of people who use a shared Netflix account may soon have to pay up. — dpa

The millions of households sharing their Netflix accounts with friends and family may soon have to pay significantly more for subscriptions if Netflix executes its crackdown on password sharing, now reportedly planned by the end of the year.

According to a New York Times report, Netflix management has told employees to prepare for a password sharing crackdown in the final three months of 2022.

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Netflix estimates that almost a third of all households using the streaming service do so using shared accounts paid for by another household.

“In addition to our 222 million paying households, we estimate that Netflix is being shared with over 100 million additional households,” Netflix said in a review of quarterly earnings in April.

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According to the report published on Tuesday, Netflix says it also wants to add a new cheaper ad-supported subscription tier at the same time later this year.

The streaming giant has yet to specify the pricing for additional profiles for password-sharing households.

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However if Netflix uses the same model from an initial crackdown in Latin America, it’s clear the service could become significantly more expensive for anyone who wants to continue sharing their basic subscription plan with family and friends.

In early 2021, Netflix began trialling new fees for paid account sharing in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.

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The price per additional account in these countries is set at around US$3 (RM13.19), while a basic subscription there costs about US$7 (RM30.78). This translates to roughly US$4 (RM17.59) to US$6 (RM26.38) for two extra profiles on top of the standard plan of US$7 (RM30.78).

According to the model in Latin America, only two accounts can be added on top of the original account. That means, for example, that parents can pay extra to share Netflix with two children who have moved out.

Netflix’s drive to increase paying subscribers comes after the service said it lost around 200,000 paid subscriptions in the three months up to the end of March. Overall, the number of users worldwide fell to 221.6 million at the end of the quarter. – dpa