Netflix: Fighting account sharing

With its questionable pricing policy, Netflix has definitely not earned itself a trophy for transparency this year. After the streaming service’s subscribers were already surprised twice this year by unwelcome fee increases, the third one is now following. However, this time it is not an across-the-board price increase. Rather, all those who share their Netflix access with friends, acquaintances or family members are affected.

Netflix says account sharing the fight

Account sharing is an Anglicism that will certainly not be unfamiliar to you. This describes that people share an access to a service. In the end, there is an account from which several people can benefit as users. Netflix itself is aware that sharing a streaming account is a popular practice among users. Accordingly, the provider has also specified in its terms and conditions for the 4K subscription that a total of four people can share the account and thus stream simultaneously. However, Netflix ties this to a prerequisite. The four people must live in the same household.

In the future, anyone who wants to share their standard or premium Netflix subscription with others can do so by paying a separate fee. In this way, Netflix wants users to voluntarily pay an additional fee of around 3 euros per month. The streaming provider is currently already testing whether this new strategy will work out in countries in South America. To be more precise, Netflix has chosen Costa Rica, Peru and Chile to serve as guinea pigs. One incentive that is supposed to drive users to pay the additional fee is the possibility of up to two sub-accounts. This means that different users can also have different recommendations displayed.

Implementation still unclear

Netflix is apparently trying desperately to get money out of even the last “shadow user”. Should enough users bring themselves to pay the additional contribution of 3 euros, the plan could of course work out. What is certain is that Netflix will tie its further actions to the behavior of users in Peru, Chile and Costa Rica. The additional costs that this would impose on Netflix users are truly immense. Let’s hope that these are the last efforts of the streaming service to get more money for the time being.