Netflix will soon launch a test to allow primary account holders to pay additional fees for users outside of their households, the company’s latest attempt to address illegal password sharing.
According to Netflix’s terms of service, a customer account “cannot be shared with anyone outside of your family.” After years of ignoring password-sharing behavior beyond that requirement, the company ran a limited test last year asking users to enter their account credentials to nudge freeloaders to pay for their own accounts.
Now, in an upcoming test launch in three countries – Chile, Costa Rica and Peru – Netflix will allow members who share their accounts with people outside their family to do so “easily and securely, while paying a little more,” according to according to Changy Long. , director of innovation at Netflix. New opportunities will appear over the next few weeks in three countries (and may or may not expand beyond these markets).
“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,” Long wrote on his blog about the test. “While they were hugely popular, they also created some confusion about when and how to share Netflix. As a result, accounts are spread across households, impacting our ability to invest in great new TV shows and movies for our members.”
With the “add additional member” feature, Netflix Standard and Premium members will be able to add child accounts for two people they don’t live with, each with their own profile, personalized recommendations, username and password – for less, than the cost of a separate Netflix plan.
In test countries, the cost to add a sub-member is 2380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica and 7.9 PEN in Peru. Here’s a price breakdown for Netflix plans in each country:
| The country | Base | Standard | Premium | Additional Member |
| Peru | 24.9 PEN | 34.9 PEN | 44.9 PEN | 7.9 PEN |
| Costa Rica | $8.99 | $12.99 | $15.99 | $2.99 |
| Chile | 5940 CLP | 8320 KLP | 10700 CLP | 2380 klp |
As with other tests conducted by the streamer, there is no guarantee that non-family payment options will eventually become a permanent part of the service. “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,” Long wrote in his post.
In addition, Netflix is testing the ability to allow subscribers to transfer user profiles to new accounts, which would make it easier for password collectors to pay for their own plans. Members in the three test countries can allow people who share their account to transfer profile information to either a new account or an additional member’s sub-account while retaining their browsing history, “My List” and personal recommendation information.
In three test markets, Netflix will notify members who use their account outside of their household over the next few weeks of the new features. The member may only be asked to verify their account if a device outside their home is included in the account; Netflix can then ask the user to confirm signing in from the device by sending a verification code.
Netflix ended 2021 with 221.8 million paying subscribers worldwide. Of these, 75.2 million (34% of the total) were in the US and Canada.
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