Netflix to charge extra fees to users for illicit password-sharing to friends, relatives

Netflix is set to tighten the noose on customers who have been sharing passwords outside their households.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the streaming service informed that they are going to launch a test that will allow subscribers to pay an additional cost for the users using the service outside their vicinity.

According to Chengyi Long, the director of Product Innovation at Netflix, the OTT has facilitated subscribers to share their accounts with features such as separate profiles and multiple streams in Standard and Premium plans.

“The new option will let people share the password easily and securely,” he added.

However, despite the popularity, there is a misperception among account holders when it comes to sharing the streaming service to the users outside their homes, the statement reported.

Long said that as a consequence, the accounts shared between different households had impacted OTT’s investments that are eventually used to produce amazing content for the customers.

Hence Long revealed that in the initial phase, the streaming service has planned to test two new features for the members limited to three countries including Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.

The first feature, as per the statement, will allow members of three countries to add “sub accounts for up to two individuals not from the same household”. This means that each user will have their own profile, log in and password, and that too, at a very low price.

The second feature, on the other hand, will enable the account holders to “transfer users’ profile information either to a new account or an extra member sub account; this will protect the viewing history and personalized recommendations,” the statement mentioned.

Long further disclosed that for now, the OTT platform will analyse the result in these three testing countries before “making changes anywhere else in the world”.