Netflix will start charging users who share their accounts with people outside of their households
Starting next month, Netflix is launching a new subscription feature that will charge users who share their accounts with non-household members in selected countries.
In a July 18 statement, the video-streaming giant said that it has been "carefully exploring" ways to reach more people without having to create a new subscription. With this new update, users will be able to legitimately share their passwords with other households by subscribing to a new feature called "Add a Home,” which will charge them monthly fees on top of their monthly Netflix subscription.
“It’s great that our members love Netflix movies and TV shows so much they want to share them more broadly. But today’s widespread account sharing between households undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve our service,” said Netflix’s Product Innovation Director Chengyi Long.
According to Netflix, this is their attempt to curtail the widespread account sharing between households, which has hampered their ability to make long-term service improvements and investments.
Netflix has always prohibited users from sharing their accounts with people outside of their immediate family based on their terms of use, but they have never levied additional fees for breaking this rule.
Users from Latin America will be the first to have the new feature, which will be available on August 22.
In Argentina, users can pay $1.70 (about P90) per month to let other households enjoy their Netflix account. This feature will also be offered in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala for a monthly subscription price of $2.99 (P167).
Netflix said they will also include options for users to watch while away from home and the ability to control accounts being used by other households for the “Add to Home” subscription.
Earlier, Netflix also announced that it would introduce a cheaper subscription plan with ads in partnership with Microsoft to attract more subscribers.