Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Netflix will roll out paid password sharing in the US by June end.
- Members can choose to pay to sub-accounts or boot out people sharing their accounts.
- Those switching to individual accounts from shred accounts will be able to transfer their profile information.
The inevitable is happening. Netflix has finally set a timeline to start charging US subscribers for password sharing. In a shareholder letter dated April 18, the streaming service announced that it would roll out paid password sharing in the US by the end of the second quarter of this year, aka by June end. That means you’ll soon have to pay extra for sub-accounts or ask friends and family members to get their own Netflix accounts.
The company hasn’t announced just how much password sharing will cost in the US. The crackdown began in Canada in February this year, where Netflix charges CAD $7.99 (~$6) a month per sub-account. We expect the US pricing to be somewhere in the same ballpark.
Netflix says that it now has more paying members in Canada than what it had before introducing paid account sharing. The streamer expects to see a temporary loss in subscribers when it introduces password sharing in the US. However, it is optimistic that revenue will go up in the long term as borrowers start to activate their own accounts and existing members add extra members to their accounts.
With password sharing activated, sub-accounts added to a main Netflix account will have their own profile, personalized recommendations, login ID, and password. You can’t add more than two sub-accounts to a main account.
Folks who are currently using the same account will also be able to transfer their profiles to a new paid account in case they don’t want to share one account. Their recommendations, viewing history, watchlist, saved games, and more will automatically move to the new account.
Other account sharing restrictions will also apply. Members will be required to set up their home as their primary location. They will then have to log into the Netflix app on their home network at least once every 31 days or risk having their account access blocked.
