Netflix Subscribers Will Now Pay 50% Extra To Share Passwords In Selected Countries

The streaming company, which has been trying to convert more people who are sharing passwords with subscribers to paying subscribers, will be 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. However, there would be an additional cost for “subaccount” which would range in different prices depending on the country, for example in Portugal, subscribers pay €3.99 (or $4.28) a month, while in Spain, subscribers across the border pay €5.99 (or $6.43) a month.

Standard and Premium plan subscribers on Netflix are allowed to add one or two subaccounts respectively but this option is not available on the Basic plan.

The new fees would, however, add additional costs to subscribers who wish to share their password or have sub-accounts. For example, a subscriber on a standard plan in Canada will pay 16.49 Canadian dollars (or $12.28) a month, and adding a sub-account or an extra member will cost an additional 7.99 Canadian dollars (or $5.49), which raises the total cost by 50%.

According to Netflix’s support page, the streaming platform defines a “household” as “people who live in the same location with the account owner.”

Netflix also disclosed that over 100 million households are engaged in some form of account sharing or password sharing and in a letter addressed to shareholders last month, the company said that Netflix users sharing passwords for other users “undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix.”

Netflix, however, is also testing different methods that would help discourage password sharing in some of the Latin American markets, which has been ongoing since March, to which the first model proposed on Wednesday was tested first in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica.

It also disclosed in its shareholder’s letter that it would roll out more detailed anti-sharing measures in the first quarter of 203, while warning that this new measure is set to affect  “near-term member growth,” but also claims it would improve overall revenue as customers who used to share accounts with paying users will also become paying customers.

Netflix, which accelerated the crackdown on account sharing due to it losing 1.2 million paying subscribers in the first half of 2022 has since recovered, adding 10.1 million subscribers in the second half of 2022, with its new ad-supported subscription plan which is affordable at a lower price that was launched in November 2022.