Way back in 2019, Netflix began looking for a way of restricting account sharing – before it put its plans on hold at the beginning of the pandemic. It looks like the streaming platform could finally drop the hammer in 2023. This follows a report from The Wall Street Journal, which cites people close to the matter.
The report claims that there are around 100 million users that aren’t paying for the service themselves. And following Netflix’s first loss of subscribers (some 200,000) in over a decade, the company feels that it’s missing out on quite a large piece of the pie and it wants a bite.
But, how?
Back when the streamer first kicked around the idea of ending password sharing, chief product officer Greg Peters said “We’ll see those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.”
In 2022, Netflix began testing a small password-sharing fee that users could add to their accounts (around $3/m or R51/m) that would allow for extra accounts outside of the account holder’s home address. The test was limited to certain South American countries and… it didn’t go too well.
Something similar could be implemented next year, though Netflix hasn’t officially teased what a phase-out of password sharing could look like. There’s been no word on whether certain account tiers will be limited in password sharing at all, either. It may opt to only allow its most valuable customers (4-screen watchers) to share their passwords.
Should this feature roll out globally, Netflix would keep track of its users through device IDs, IP addresses, and account activity. You’d need a fee for each user that wants to use your Netflix account outside of your home. Prices could also vary depending on the country you’re watching in.
We’ll have to wait until 2023 to see exactly what Netflix has in store.
Source: The Wall Street Journal