Are you one of the 100 million households sharing Netflix account with other users who don’t live in the same premises? If yes, then get ready for the looming crackdown of Netflix on account-sharing that starts today in four nations, including New Zealand.
The initial ‘nudge’ starts today in New Zealand, Canada, Portugal, and Spain to ‘buy an extra member sub-account’ for $7.99 (in New Zealand) before the harsher crackdown begins. That actual date of start of subscribing to sub-account has not been announced yet, though an earlier policy announced a week earlier stipulated a 31-day requirement for paid subscribers to set a primary location.
This 31-day requirement, however, was not included in yesterday’s (9 January) update by Netflix in a blog post.
Netflix streaming is intended for one household, and account-holder users could choose from a range of plans with different features.
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account with features like profiles and multiple streams. While these have been hugely popular, they’ve also created confusion about when and how you can share Netflix.
“Today, over 100 million households are sharing accounts — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films”, says Chengyi Long, Director, Product Innovation.
In yesterday’s announcement, users of Netflix can expect to see new controls designed to ensure the streaming takes place from their household only. But as the update doesn’t say Netflix will block streaming access to other account-sharers that are at a different location, it indicates users in these four countries are being given time to buy extra sub-accounts’.
According to one report, Netflix users will get a pop-up message to sign- up for their own subscription, or to ask the account holder to pay extra to continue streaming from their primary location.
According to Chengyi Loom, Netflix has been “exploring different approaches to address this issue in Latin America, and we’re now ready to roll them out more broadly in the coming months, starting today.”
Members can choose from a range of plans with different features as seen below:
In the proposed changes, members will have to set their primary location and anyone who lives in that household can use their Netflix account. For this there will be a new Manage Access and Devices page.
People using an account can now easily transfer a profile to a new account, which they pay for — keeping their personalized recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games and more.
When members travel, they can still easily watch Netflix on their personal devices or log into a new TV, like at a hotel or holiday rental.
If members wish to share their account with other users who do not live at the primary location, can do so by buying an extra member. So members in New Zealand, for example, can add an extra member sub account for up to two people they don’t live with — each with a profile, personalized recommendations, login and password — for an extra $7.99.
