Netflix to Clamp Down ‘More Broadly’ on Account Sharing, Introduce Extra Fees

Netflix has a plan to increase revenue, and it involves cracking down on account sharing, meaning users will have to stop giving out their passwords to friends and family.

The streamer made the announcement on Thursday, January 19, revealing it will focus “more broadly” on stopping account sharing in the first quarter of 2023. This means Netflix users will only be able to share their accounts within one household, as opposed to sharing with multiple external users.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, account holders who wish to continue sharing with users outside the home will be able to pay an extra fee to keep those profiles. However, an exact pricing plan has not yet been revealed. It’s also said that all users will still be able to access their accounts while traveling.

“Today’s widespread account sharing (100M+ households) undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business. While our terms of use limit use of Netflix to a household, we recognize this is a change for members who share their account more broadly,” Netflix said in its fourth-quarter earnings letter (via THR).

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Netflix is expected to start implementing these changes at the end of its first quarter, with the rollout staggered across countries throughout the next couple of quarters. Countries such as Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have already put these changes into motion.

The streamer, which announced a loss of subscribers for the first time in 2022, has been looking for ways to increase revenue. The crackdown on account sharing is part of this process, in addition to the newly launched advertising tier.

“Part of it is what we call casual sharing, which is people could pay, but they don’t need to and so they’re borrowing somebody’s account,” said Netflix’s co-CEO Greg Peters. “So our job is to give them a little bit of a nudge and to create features that make transitioning to their own account easy and simple.”