Netflix wants to eradicate shared accounts for good. The streaming platform announced on Tuesday a new update to its policy in the US, where from now on only those members of “a household” can use the same account, considered as such a “group of devices connected to the Internet in the main place where you watch Netflix”.
“Your Netflix account is for you and the people you live with: your home,” reads the email that those Americans who allow their passwords to log in outside their usual address will receive over the next few days. Same policy that is already implemented in some European countries.
If the platform detects misuse, it will offer its US customers two options before password sharing: the user who lives outside their home can transfer their profile to a new paid subscription; or the account holder can add one more member by paying a fee of $8 per month.
“An extra member will have their own profile, account and password, but their membership will be paid for by the person who invited them to join,” the company detailed in its statement. Depending on the platform, the additional user option can be used only once in standard type accounts and up to two times in premium subscriptions.
Of course, the terminals linked to that “home” will continue to work while the owners are “on a trip” or want to project their accounts on “the television of a hotel or in their vacation home.”
That for American users. However, the company has not clarified whether it will penalize those subscribers who continue to share accounts outside their homes, as has been the case in Spain, Portugal, Canada and New Zealand, countries where this policy already operates.
The platform takes advantage of the statement to prevent a possible flight of users in one of its main markets: “We will continue to invest heavily in a wide variety of new movies and television shows, so that there is always something to satisfy you on Netflix.”
The shared password control model is one of the main headaches for the platform, which has suffered significant user losses for this reason in regions such as Latin America, but has been able to compensate by offering reduced-price plans with advertising.
Despite all the changes, both in the account policy and in the direction of the company, now led by Ted Sarandos, Netflix remains the leading streaming service worldwide with 232.5 million customers. In the first quarter of 2023, it reached revenues of 7,577 million euros, an increase of 3.7% compared to the same period of the previous year.
