Netflix wants to crack down on users sharing passwords
Netflix has announced a pair of new measures to charge users sharing passwords between people who don't live in the share household.
Credit: David Balev/Unsplash
In a blog post Wednesday, Chengyi Long, Netflix's director of Product Innovation, said that the new mechanisms are a response to the "confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared."
The most notable anti-password sharing measure is something Netflix is calling "Add an Extra Member," which allows users on Standard and Premium plans to add sub accounts for up to two people they don't live with.
While the extra members are available at a "discounted price," it's still an additional cost on top of the subscription price that Netflix recently hiked to new highs.
Netflix will test the new "Add an Extra Member" mechanism in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru in the coming months. The additional members will cost 2,380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
Additionally, Netflix is adding a new feature that will make it easier to kick other people off your account. It's called "Transfer Profile to a New Account," and it allows people who share passwords to transfer profile information -- such as viewing history and personalized recommendations -- to either an Extra Member sub account or a completely new subscription.
"We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films," Netflix said. "We'll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world."
Read on AppleInsider
Credit: David Balev/Unsplash
In a blog post Wednesday, Chengyi Long, Netflix's director of Product Innovation, said that the new mechanisms are a response to the "confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared."
The most notable anti-password sharing measure is something Netflix is calling "Add an Extra Member," which allows users on Standard and Premium plans to add sub accounts for up to two people they don't live with.
While the extra members are available at a "discounted price," it's still an additional cost on top of the subscription price that Netflix recently hiked to new highs.
Netflix will test the new "Add an Extra Member" mechanism in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru in the coming months. The additional members will cost 2,380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
Additionally, Netflix is adding a new feature that will make it easier to kick other people off your account. It's called "Transfer Profile to a New Account," and it allows people who share passwords to transfer profile information -- such as viewing history and personalized recommendations -- to either an Extra Member sub account or a completely new subscription.
"We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films," Netflix said. "We'll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world."
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I know there will be a lot of whining about this plan. But Netflix (and eventually others) have to do this. Too many are sharing with others outside of their households. Had a cousin that shared the account with her daughters when they went off to school. Who shared it with their friends and/or S/Os. My cousin wound up locked out of her own account. She had to call CS, reset the password and won't share her account with anyone now that the daughters have moved out.
www.kanopy.com
The standard, mid tier, Netflix subscription costs $3/month in Turkey. If Turkey’s customer revenue alone can’t support creating Turkish content then that content shouldn’t get made, or I should at least be able to opt out of being forced to subsidize it.
Just for testing, they could introduce an account type that was cheaper but blocked sharing. See how popular it would be.
Netflix is not operating blind when they make decisions and changes. They may not be right, but the number of unrelated, not even living in the same household people sharing passwords is insane. It pretty much amounts to stealing.
Charge each user of a stream. If your account has four streams you pay four times $X then who cares who is using them. Fifth person tries to sign on, they can't. One price per stream.
If the Netflix hacker can still log in, then you have a bigger problem than just some one hacking your Netflix account.