People using an account on the go will need to log in from the primary address once every 31 days to avoid being flagged.
There will be no penalty for Master Account members who are caught sharing their credentials. The company will simply block people it shares with from being able to stream. People who want to create their own account have the option to transfer their profile so they can catch the episode of “Selling Sunset” they were last watching.
Only people who pay for the “Standard” plan at $15.49 per month or “Premium” at $19.99 per month will have the option of paying for additional users. If they have a “Basic” $6.99 per month or $9.99 per month ad-supported plan, they won’t have the option unless they upgrade.
Netflix said 100 million people worldwide use its subscription streaming service without paying for their own accounts. He began testing this password-sharing crackdown last year in other countries, but has long said it will eventually come to the United States, where the company was founded in 1997.
Critics of the app say it doesn’t take into account families and non-traditional jobs or limited income. If a child is going to college for the first time and living in a dormitory, they will have to pay for an additional “additional member” profile. The same goes for anyone who mostly logs on away from the main home address without returning regularly, whether because they work on the road, are deployed in the military, or are a child living primarily with a custodial parent, but not the Netflix Account.
Although company policies have always stated that accounts should be shared by households, it has publicly adopted this practice in the past. In 2017, the official Netflix account tweeted “Love shares a password”. And at CES in 2016, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings said the company “loved” people sharing Netflix accounts and described it as “a positive thing, not a negative thing,” according to CNET.
Streaming companies have fine-tuned their businesses over the past year as they grapple with growing competition and the reality that people can only afford so many monthly subscription fees. Many have raised prices, including Prime Video, Netflix and Apple TV Plus, but no other company has pursued account sharing in the same way.
In April, Netflix also announced it was ending its DVD subscription service, which sent physical discs to customers – an offering that has been around since the company was founded.