Netflix is Cracking Down on Sharing Passwords, But Not in Aus (Yet)

It could spell trouble for those of us (okay, all of us) who leach off someone else’s account.

We all know we’re sharing Netflix passwords around and apparently Netflix does too. And they’re not happy about it.

So they’re rolling out a trial in South America to stop people sharing their accounts outside of their households.

You can shed a tear for those in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru where the streaming service are cracking down first. If subscribers there share a password outside of their household, they’ll now be forced to foot the bill.

In a statement posted to Netflix’s blog on Wednesday, the company said they would be introducing two new features in those countries to combat password-sharing.

“Extra Member” where people who subscribe to Netflix's standard and premium plans can pay to add an account for up to two people they don't live with. They’ll have access like any other Netflix account, including their own profile and login, but at a discounted rate.

Secondly, "Profile Transfer" will let basic, standard and premium subscribers transfer their profile information (that includes their watch history and list) to a new account that they would pay for.

“For the last year we’ve been working on ways to enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more,” the company statement read.

“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account,” Netflix went on to say. “… [this has] created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households.”

They said this was impacting their ability to invest in new content for members, “whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films”.

The announcement comes just months after Aussie Netflix subscribers (the ones who actually pay for your account) were slugged an extra few bucks a month for their standard and premium plans.

In November last year, standard plans jumped from $15.99 to $16.99 a month and premium plans shot up from $19.99 to $22.99.

Might not sound like much but $22.99 a month works out at $275.88 per year and makes Netflix the most expensive streaming service in Australia. Ouch.

Netflix is really out here trying to stop people from sharing their passwords during these inflationist times huh?

— B.C. Harbin (@bc_harbin) March 17, 2022

Paying for passwords is just a limited test for now, so don’t stress yet. But Netflix said it would see how well the features work in South America “before making changes anywhere else in the world”.

I’m off to go a binge Schitt’s Creek again before my uncle’s friend’s ex potentially can’t pay for my account anymore.