Netflix revealed a few weeks ago that it is cracking down on the prevalent practice of password sharing between people who do not reside in the same home by charging an additional fee for the privilege.
Chengyi Long, director of product innovation, writes in a blog post that “although these [household plans] have been extremely popular, they have also generated some uncertainty around when and how Netflix can be shared.” As a result, households are sharing accounts, limiting our capacity to invest in exciting new television and film for our customers.”
Netflix will conduct a test period in three countries: Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. Along with the option to transfer watching profiles to new accounts (either your own primary account or another’s), users will receive prompts to upgrade their subscription to include an additional viewer at a discounted rate of 2,380 CLP in Chile, 2.99 USD in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
Netflix is hardly the first company to try with a password-sharing ban. The company experimented with an account verification tool last year to prevent unauthorized users from using other people’s accounts.
However, the addition of the “add an additional member” and “transfer profile” capabilities demonstrates that Netflix is thinking carefully about how to continue growing while its subscriber base plateaus. If Netflix wishes to maintain its throne as the streaming monarch, it must continue to bankroll ever-expensive original content. That money has to come from someplace, as Long said succinctly in today’s Netflix announcement.
