Netflix password-sharing crackdown details released
Netflix may offer cheaper plans with ads
Netflix's shares took a big hit this week, with the stock price plummeting 26% after reporting it lost about 200,000 subscribers in its first quarter, falling well below expectations. The company is now said to be considering a lower-cost plan that would including advertisements.
Additional information about Netflix’s efforts to restrict members from sharing passwords outside their households has come to light.
The "Sharing your Netflix account" pages on the streaming giant’s Help Center for Costa Rica, Chile and Peru on Wednesday said "anyone in your household (those who live with you at your primary location)" can use a Netflix account.
Those who aren’t part of what Netflix considers a household will have to get their own account. Or the owner of the account outsiders have been using can add them as an "extra member," according to those webpages.
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The cost of adding an "extra member" to an account with a standard or premium plan is "less than the price of [Netflix’s] basic plan," the Help Center pages for the three countries adds. That additional monthly fee will be charged to the person whose account the "extra member" gets added to.
"When someone signs into your account from a device that is not part of your primary location, or if your account is accessed persistently from another location, that device may be blocked from watching Netflix," the website also states.
To detect devices linked to the primary location of an account, the company said it utilizes IP addresses, device IDs and account activity.
Associating a device with a primary location involves "connect[ing] to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open[ing] the Netflix app or website and watch[ing] something at least once every 31 days," the Help Center page for Costa Rica said. Those so-called "trusted devices" allow users to stream content on Netflix when not at the primary location.
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People can still use the streaming service while traveling or living "between different places" by using a temporary access code or updating the primary location of an account.
Netflix said in a Jan. 19 shareholder letter that over 100 million households engaged in account sharing, something it said "undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business." The company has plans for the new paid sharing system to launch "more broadly" in the first quarter of 2023, it also said.
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"Near term engagement," Netflix said, could see some negative impacts while the company expands the paid-sharing system and some users choose to stop instead of creating their own accounts or becoming an "extra member." The company said it expects engagement to grow "over time," however.
Netflix's total subscriber count came in at 230.75 million at the end of 2022’s fourth quarter, compared to 221.84 million reported in the same period in 2021.
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