During the first quarter of 2023, Netflix is expected to end free account sharing. We explain why and how.
The measure was tested last year in South America. In the spring of 2022, Netflix subscribers in Peru, Chile and Costa Rica got a nasty surprise: having to pay extra fees to share their account with people who don’t live in the same household.
Netflix was talking about “an impact on its ability to invest in new television programs and films for our members” to justify this decision.
Deeming the trial conclusive, the streaming platform should generalize this additional cost to all of its users, indicates BFM TV. The measure should take effect in the first quarter of 2023. During the tests, its amount was 3 euros. It allowed to create a sub-account that could be used by another person not living at the same address.
100 million users share their account
It must be said that for Netflix, the stakes are high. Since the launch of its various offers, 100 million users had shared their accounts to reduce the costs of their subscriptions. That’s as many potential customers as less.
According to our colleagues, the platform wants to carry out a real hunt for non-subscribers. This should essentially be concentrated on television viewing, via IP geolocation to track account sharing.
On the other hand, it should be more difficult to control mobile devices such as telephones, tablets or computers. It should therefore always be possible to watch films and series on the account of a third party on one of these media.