Netflix announced on Tuesday that users in the US, France and around 100 other countries will now have to pay a surcharge to share their access codes for the service with people outside their household as part of its strategy to diversify its income.
The streaming veteran has been testing this new formula for a year and has already implemented it, notably in Canada, after a difficult 2022 marked by subscriber losses in the first half before bouncing back in the second half.
“Over 100 million households are sharing their account, affecting our ability to invest in great movies and TV shows,” Netflix said in a February statement.
Prices vary by country: US households now have to pay almost $8 more per month to allow a guest to use their account.
In France it will be 6 euros a month, like in Spain, but instead of 4 euros in Portugal, two countries where the measure has already been introduced.
“Your Netflix account is for you and the people who live with you, i.e. your household,” the platform said in an email, which is to be sent to all affected subscribers on Tuesday.
The message suggests two possible solutions for those who already share their identifiers: they can add another subscriber by paying the surcharge, or transfer someone’s profile outside the household. The latter must take out their own subscription, but retain their preferences.
The Californian group also reminds that subscribers can continue to watch their programs on the go.
Netflix, which has more than 232 million subscribers, added a cheaper subscription plan with ads in late 2022 after years of hesitation. According to the company, it now has nearly 5 million monthly active users.
The policy on restricting password sharing lagged behind.
According to Greg Peters, the company’s co-CEO, tests and deployments have been successful in Latin America and more recently Canada.
“First there are cancellations. And then people who used borrowed credentials create their own accounts and add profiles, and we’re picking up momentum again in terms of subscriptions and revenue,” he said at an analyst conference in April.