More like Netflix and account.
The days of free downloading a friend’s account on Netflix may soon be over: As part of an ongoing campaign to crack down on rampant password sharing, the California-based streaming giant has unveiled plans to charge primary account holders extra for users outside of their households.
“Over the past year, we’ve been working to make it easy and safe for members who live outside of their families to pay a little more,” Changi Long, director of product innovation at Netflix, wrote in a blog post. .
The streamer has previously ignored the sharing of non-family accounts, despite the ban on rampant practices (sharing between those who live in the same household is still allowed). However, they decided to make the change, feeling that it “damaged our ability to invest in great new TV shows and movies for our members.”
The company is now testing a new feature in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica that allows Standard and Premium plan owners to “add additional accounts for two people they don’t live with, each with their own profile, personalized recommendations, username and password,” – says the site. They will cost subscribers 2380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
In addition, the pilot program allows subscribers to transfer user profiles to new accounts, which could theoretically inspire freeloaders to pay for their own plans.
Netflix may soon start cracking down on users who share passwords with those living in other households. Future publications via Getty Image
However, many streaming enthusiasts were not enthusiastic about the proposed policy, which they saw as just another way to get customers to get extra money.
“Netflix will lose a lot of customers if they take action against the password exchange they plan to do” — outraged one dissatisfied customer on Twitter. “Charge extra and crap. Especially when they don’t already have as much good content as some other streaming apps.”
Another thought the measure was unfair as it punished family members who did not live in the same household.
“How do you expect families to deal with password exchange in the case of divorcees, their children, or college students away from home?” they wrote. “We pay so much for this already, now you’re just milking us for every dollar spent.”
Thankfully, Long said that Netflix “will be working to understand the usefulness of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world.”
The trial is part of the streamer’s ongoing campaign to ensure no revenue is lost as the streaming space becomes more competitive. Piracy and password sharing cost streaming providers $9.1 billion in 2019 alone, according to an analysis by research firm Parks Associates. The firm estimates that figure will rise to $12.5 billion by 2024.
Under a similar cash-saving policy two months ago, Netflix raised its monthly subscription cost by $1-2 per month in the US, depending on the plan, to help pay for programming costs.