Your mother lives in Ohio. They live in New York but share a Netflix account. The same is true for the family whose children are in college and for the couple living apart while stationed at a military base abroad.
i see your stories I feel you. I was in the same boat.
People aren’t happy with Netflix’s move to charge members additional fees for sharing accounts. The company was called because of a 5 year old tweet: “Love shares a password.”
Even the card game Uno joined the Twitter roast indicate the turnaround. Swarms of vocal Netflix subscribers are taking to social media — Netflix’s comments sections are really feeling the burn — vowing to cancel their accounts and wondering why they’re paying for multiple screens.
Netflix has referred to viewers outside of the main household as additional members or sub-accounts. In Canada, where pricing is $16.50 for a Standard plan and $21 for Premium, the cost of adding an additional member is $8 per person. If a single streaming service that costs $30 a month to stream to two or four screens sounds like a lot to you, I agree.
In the US, we still don’t know how much it will cost for additional members each month. If Netflix finally decides to tell us, I think it should also announce some smart discounts.
Netflix needs a cheaper plan for students
Parents and their college kids are among those unhappy with the new policy. If Netflix insists on charging for password sharing, I think it should offer a no-frills student subscription.
College kids love to stream, and they often do it on their parents’ accounts. Not as free riders, but as household members—even if their school is five states away. When we drop our 17 or 18 year olds out of college, I bet no one will say, “Time for me to kick you off Netflix, you jerk.”
Dorm life: The moment they all found out, they can’t log into their families’ Netflix accounts.
Coroimage/Getty Images
Instead of blocking kids who go to school far from home, Netflix should offer a student plan that’s cheaper than its ad-supported basic subscription. Hulu, Paramount Plus, and Spotify do it, proving that a blueprint exists.
All three platforms use SheerID to verify eligibility for college and university students. Hulu charges eligible students $2 per month for its ad-based plan. Spotify’s premium student subscription costs $5 per month, with the first month free and the added benefit of free access to Showtime and Hulu with ads. Paramount Plus offers college students a 25% discount on its Essential plan, which lasts four years, even if you graduate early.
If Netflix followed suit, it could find the sweet spot between $2 and $5 a month to help a broke college kid. The company launched its ad-based $7 tier in January, joining the ranks of Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, and others in conquering that frontier. Adding a new subscription option for students is reasonably within Netflix’s capabilities. If the streamer wants to keep their subscriber numbers up, why not?
Continue reading: Best streaming service deals for Disney Plus, Hulu and more
Military members should also get a discount
Along with students who are months – or years – away from home, there are service members. It’s common for a loved one to be stationed abroad while also sharing a single Netflix account with family in their home country or state. Instead of geoblocking them or flagging account sharing fees, why not offer a military rate plan for active duty members? It’s something streaming services like Disney Plus, Apple TV, and Discovery Plus offer their customers.
Why does Netflix charge sub-accounts?
With Netflix, everyone has to pay to click play, especially if you don’t live under the same roof. From a business perspective, the company wants to explore opportunities to make money on joint accounts. It is intended to fund content creation and overall operations and was discussed during the company’s Q1 2022 earnings call. “Another area of focus is the best monetization of sharing – the 100+ million households using another household’s account,” the streamer wrote in its letter to shareholders. According to Netflix, more than 30 million of those who believe sharing is caring live in the US and Canada.
The additional costs are currently active in countries such as Canada, Spain, New Zealand and Portugal. In some regions, the additional fees also include additional steps, e.g. B. verifying that your device is connected to your primary location or sending invitations to additional members to use your account.
I like Netflix, but none of the other big streamers do. And as Fox 9 TV host Jason Matheson points out, it’s extremely inconvenient.
Netflix customers in the US will soon find out how to deal with password-sharing fees on their accounts — or not.
Joan E Solsman/CNET
Netflix could lose to the competition
With such a crowded streaming services market, every price hike, extra fee, and inconvenience can make a platform less necessary. Netflix is aware that while it was a pioneer in this space, there are competitors who want to be at the forefront. Long ago it supplanted blockbusters and showed how a business model can make or break a company’s survival.
Let’s not forget that content availability plays a big part too, because when there’s nothing to watch to justify the monthly rate you’re paying, it’s time to drop something. We rotate our streaming services to save money or when we run out of content to stream. If the additional costs are too high, especially in the USA, Netflix must expect customers to migrate for months. That’s not to say services like HBO Max and Disney Plus are immune to being shut down because they’ve had to contend with frustrated customers over price increases and cancellations alike.
However, the cost of sharing passwords can be prohibitive. Only time will tell if this new setup is worth it for Netflix, but it’s going to be an uphill battle to onboard customers around the world. A rebate plan could help cushion the blow.
Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.
Initially published Feb 17, 2023 at 6:45am PT.