Netflix is stepping up its efforts to crack down on the age-old practice of password sharing. As first announced by the company in a blog post, Netflix is starting to test a new optional customer option that allows people to “easily and securely” share their password with people outside their home, but at the cost of “paying a little more.”
Netflix password sharing may end
Chengy Long, Director of Product Innovation at Netflix, wrote on his blog:
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account with features like separate profiles and multiple streams on our Standard and Premium plans. While they were extremely popular, they also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are spread across households, impacting our ability to invest in great new TV shows and movies for our members.”
As Variety explained, this new “add additional member” feature will allow Netflix Standard and Netflix Premium subscribers to add “child accounts for two people they don’t live with.” Each of these people will receive their own profile and personal recommendations, as well as their own username and password.
So how much will it cost? Netflix is testing the feature starting in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. The cost of adding a so-called “sub-member” will be 2,380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
In these three markets, Netflix will notify subscribers who “share their account outside of their family” about this new option. A member “may only be asked to verify their account if a device outside their family is included in the account.” From there, the user may be prompted to confirm the login by “sending confirmation”.
As you can see, the implementation details here are still a little hazy. Netflix also doesn’t have details on when or if it plans to expand this “test” beyond those three countries. “We will work to understand the usefulness of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world,” the company said in a statement.
There’s one nice change to this password-sharing ban: Netflix is also testing the ability to “allow subscribers to transfer user profiles to new accounts.” This means that if you are currently sharing your Netflix password with someone outside of your home, you will be able to export your profile data (including browsing history, recommendations, and My List) to your profile.
This is just Netflix’s latest attempt at cracking down on password sharing. Last year, the company launched a test in which users who are not “living with the owner of this account” were asked to create their own account in order to continue browsing.
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