Netflix password-sharing

Starting today, users in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain will be asked to set a primary location for their account, Chengyi Long, director of product ...

More than 100 million households around the world share Netflix passwords, according to the company. Subscribers with the two highest-tier service plans, Standard and Premium, will also be able to add up to two extra members outside their household for an additional monthly fee. Netflix has revealed the next phase of its crackdown on password-sharing.

Users in these countries will now have to pay to give people they don't live with access to their account, after similar rules were trialed in Latin America ...

Netflix generated over half of its revenue in 2022 from outside the United States, so whenever the dollar loses value its international sales and earnings get a boost once translated back into the currency. A new “manage access and devices” page will allow members to more easily control who has access. Under the new rules, subscribers to Netflix’s Standard or Premium plans will be able to pay for up to two people outside of their household to use their account. Netflix started introducing the change last year in Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. [ subscriber losses](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/19/media/netflix-earnings/index.html) last year, said in a blog post Wednesday that password sharing hurt its revenues and therefore limited its ability to invest in new content. The cost of adding a new person will be $7.99 Canadian dollars ($5.96), $7.99 New Zealand dollars ($5.09), and €3.99 ($4.30) and €5.99 ($6.45) in Portugal and Spain respectively.

Netflix announced that users in four countries will have to pay an extra fee to share their account with someone living outside their household.

In a [letter to shareholders](https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/FINAL-Q4-22-Shareholder-Letter.pdf) last month, the company claimed that watchers free-riding off someone else’s account “undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix.” The model proposed on Wednesday was [first tested](https://techcrunch.com/2022/03/16/netflix-tests-a-new-feature-that-will-raise-prices-for-account-sharing/) in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica. The company warned that these new measures could affect “near-term member growth,” but claimed that it would improve overall revenue as more users who once got accounts for free became paying customers. Adding one extra member will cost an additional $7.99 Canadian (or $5.49), bumping up the total cost by almost 50%. [shareholder letter](https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/FINAL-Q4-22-Shareholder-Letter.pdf), Netflix said it would roll out its anti-sharing measures more broadly in the first quarter of 2023. The company will start asking users in Canada, New Zealand, Spain, and Portugal to pay extra if they want to share an account with someone living outside their home. Those on the company’s Basic plan cannot add a new member. [suggests](https://s22.q4cdn.com/959853165/files/doc_financials/2022/q4/FINAL-Q4-22-Shareholder-Letter.pdf) that over 100 million households engaged in some form of account sharing. [testing different ways](https://fortune.com/2023/02/02/netflix-password-sharing-latin-america-trials-hint-at-new-plan/) to discourage password sharing in some of its Latin American markets since last March. For example, a [its support page](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/123277/us), Netflix defines a household as “people who live in the same location with the account owner.” [Standard plan](https://help.netflix.com/en/node/24926/ca) in Canada costs $16.49 Canadian (or $12.28) a month.

Netflix said it will also allow people who have been borrowing accounts to transfer their viewing history and other preferences to a new, paid subscription.

Netflix didn't say what actions it will take if subscribers continue to share accounts outside their household. "We've always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account with features like profiles and multiple streams," the company said in a blog post Wednesday. While Netflix won't say when paid sharing will come to other countries, some version of the plan is expected to be introduced in the U.S.