Netflix extends account sharing crackdown: prices for extra members revealed

It begins. Netflix announced on Wednesday that it is introducing limits on account and password sharing, already active in South America, in four more countries. The company also revealed prices for additional “homes” – they’re higher than expected.

In a blog post, Netflix said it was introducing new rules on sharing accounts in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain. The crackdown is expected to reach the US in the next few weeks.

As Cybernews already reported, the idea is to finally strictly enforce Netflix’s rule that accounts or passwords cannot be shared outside your home or primary address.

Even though Netflix once encouraged password-sharing, customers are now being asked to pay an extra fee if they want friends or family outside the household to share their subscriptions.

“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account with features like profiles and multiple streams. While these have been hugely popular, they’ve also created confusion about when and how you can share Netflix. Today, over 100 million households are sharing accounts — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films,” Netflix said.

The company had already disclosed in Costa Rica how ensuring that only members of the same household use the same Netflix account will work. Subscribers will be required to watch something once a month from home Wi-Fi to log a consistent home address.

Netflix is still profitable and made $4.4 billion in 2022. However, the streaming giant already lost subscribers for two quarters in a row last year for the first time in its history and needs to shore up revenues.

It remains to be seen whether the move will work and whether the so-called freeloaders will opt to sign up individually. The competition will undoubtedly strike with all kinds of special offers if they see Netflix bleeding angry subscribers.

Yes, Netflix says users can “buy an extra member” or transfer profiles easily if they want to stop borrowing someone else’s account. But the prices are actually higher than expected, standing around $3 in Latin American countries.

In Canada, adding a “new home” costs CAD$7.99 ($6), while the fee in New Zealand is NZ$7.99 ($5). A sub account in Portugal is priced at €3.99 ($4.3), and €5.99 ($6.46) in Spain.

A lot of people on social media are unhappy with the pricing. But it might be that Netflix is trying to show it’s actually better not to fuss with adding extra members to an account when a separate individual subscription costs the same.

For example, in Spain, the “Basic with ads” Netflix plan costs €5.49 ($5.9) and is only slightly cheaper than the right to live on the shared account as an official “extra member.” Analysts say Netflix has not so far seen a burst of subscriptions to the ad-based tier.

In November, only about 9% of Netflix’s US subscriber sign-ups were for the $6.99/month ad-supported package, making it the least popular plan option, according to an analysis released by research firm Antenna.