Netflix began the crackdown on password sharing for its subscription services in February and yesterday expanded it to several others.
American video streaming platform Netflix has expanded its password-sharing crackdown in more than a hundred countries including the United States. The company announced on Tuesday that it will send an email to the members who are sharing their account credentials outside their households.
“A Netflix account is for use by one household,” the company said. People living in the same household can continue to use Netflix “at home, on the go, on holiday,” it added.
The streaming major has expanded the crackdown in more than 100 countries including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Mexico, and Brazil, according to a Reuters report. Users in these nations will not be able to share their Netflix for free outside of their households.
In the U.S., Netflix will charge subscribers of its standard and premium plans $7.99 every month for every extra member. In the United Kingdom, the charge for the same plans is £4.99 per month for each extra member. So far, the streaming platform has not introduced an additional member fee for its Indian customers.
The Los Gatos-headquartered company estimated in February that over 100 million households are sharing their Netflix login credentials which is impacting its ability to invest in great new TV and films. The company had said in the past that the new password policy will give its members greater control over who can access their account.
As per the company’s password-sharing guidelines, users can set a primary location for their Netflix accounts to ensure everyone in the household could use the service. The changes were rolled out with a new “Manage Access and Devices” page, for users to curate who has access to their accounts.
The OTT major began the crackdown on password sharing for its subscription services in February, starting with users in New Zealand, Canada, Spain, and Portugal. Meanwhile, a report by market research group Kantar highlighted that Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown backfired in Spain and the company reported a loss of one million users during the first quarter of 2023, translating to a 15% decrease in its total users in the country.
Furthermore, in an attempt to acquire more users after losing hundreds of thousands of subscribers in the second quarter of 2022, the OTT giant introduced its ad-supported subscription plan in a dozen of countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada, etc. The company believes that the new password policy along with its cheaper add-based subscriptions will boost growth in the second half of 2023.
