Netflix Testing Add-On Payment for People Who Share Accounts Outside Their Households

[MacRumors]

Netflix today said that it may implement an extra payment for those who share their Netflix accounts with people outside of their households, a practice that is common with the streaming service.

According to Netflix, sharing accounts between households impacts its ability to "invest in great new TV and films" for its members, and so it has been exploring ways to permit users to share outside of their households by "paying a bit more."

A test launching over the next few weeks in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru will implement these extra payments for those who provide Netflix access to those who they do not live with. Netflix customers in these countries can add two extra members to their accounts for monthly fees of 2,380 CLP in Chile, 2.99 USD in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru. For reference, Netflix costs $8.99 to $15.99 per month in Costa Rica.

Netflix plans to give customers on the Basic, Standard, and Premium plans an option to enable the people who they share an account with to move a profile over to a new, paid account or an extra member account, suggesting multi-household Netflix account sharing is coming to an end.

According to Netflix, it will be working to "understand the utility of these two features" in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica before making changes in other countries. Netflix has always included wording in its terms and services that prevents account usage across multiple households, but until now, the service has ignored password sharing.

Netflix is the only streaming service that charges by streaming quality. In the United States, Netflix charges $9.99 for the Basic no-HD plan that allows for streaming on a single device, $15.49 for a Standard HD plan that allows for two people to watch at the same time, and $19.99 for a Premium plan with Ultra HD streaming and support for four simultaneous viewers.

Article Link: Netflix Testing Add-On Payment for People Who Share Accounts Outside Their Households

 

[chriscl]

…and how does one define a „household“ here?

 

[_OS]

"sharing accounts between households impacts its ability to "invest in great new TV and films"

But what about sharing an account with 3 members, who all pay their own share but who live away from the main account holder?

I understand if want to charge for the 1 account member charging to share the 1 account, but if it's a 4 person account they're still getting the same payment.

 

[builder31]

This would be a great reason to decrease my Netflix subscription to basic and join the millions of people who turn their memberships on and off throughout the year. In an era of streaming and portable streaming devices, disabling users from sharing access is akin to shooting yourself in the foot because you see a penny on the ground. If I cannot use a streaming service when I travel, why am I paying for it in the first place?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Terminated my Netflix subscription a long time ago. It’s not even worth it anymore.

 

[Apple$]

Well, a good thing never lasts...... ?

 

[seanmcbay]

Maybe they should stop greenlighting so much garbage if they want to save money and not punish consumers.

 

[KrisLord]

"sharing accounts between households impacts its ability to "invest in great new TV and films"

But what about sharing an account with 3 members, who all pay their own share but who live away from the main account holder?

I understand if want to charge for the 1 account member charging to share the 1 account, but if it's a 4 person account they're still getting the same payment.

That doesn’t sound like the definition of a household if they don’t live with the account holder.

 

[MrPresident]

Boo, Netflix. Boo.

 

[Koni17]

If this ever gets implemented, I along with many others will be cancelling our subscriptions.

 

[mapsdotapp]

This would be a great reason to decrease my Netflix subscription to basic and join the millions of people who turn their memberships on and off throughout the year. In an era of streaming and portable streaming devices, disabling users from sharing access is akin to shooting yourself in the foot because you see a penny on the ground. If I cannot use a streaming service when I travel, why am I paying for it in the first place?

A great point: Netflix can’t cut you off for traveling but do want to catch people sharing accounts. Will they have to establish a usage pattern and reach out to users individually, e.g., cut them off and force an appeal? Or will they get stricter about how they treat “screens” and block simultaneous streams if they originate from multiple homes?

 

[adammusic]

Id be fine with dropping Netflix entirely is they do this ****.
I don’t even think I watch anything on Netflix anymore.
Most of their original content is garbage nonsense.

 

[Dan From Canada]

Netflix continue to do everything they can to alienate people for paying for the service and sending them to torrent sites.

 

[44267547]

So, it says Netflix is testing an ad on payment, it doesn’t say that it’s necessarily confirming that’s what will happen indefinitely.

So what’s the point of actually testing that this ‘may’ happen?

 

[nrose101]

That doesn’t sound like the definition of a household if they don’t live with the account holder.

What if your kids are in college dorms?

 

[Bandaman]

I thought they resolved this issue by jacking up the price 15 times?

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I’d pay if that’s what it took for them to be happy. We get Netflix through our T-Mobile Family Plan and it’s shared with the 4 households on the family plan (Parents+3 kids and their families).

We pay $9 for the 4 stream package split amongst the 4 households. Another $9 ($2.25 per household) isn’t a huge deal.

 

[zorinlynx]

I suspect this decision is going to bite them in the arse.

A lot of people are barely hanging on to having a Netflix subscription. I cancelled mine recently; they keep raising prices and removing old standbys that I loved having access to, like Star Trek: TNG.

This is just going to piss more people off. There is literally no difference between multiple people in the same household watching Netflix and multiple people in different locations.

 

[Menel]

Netflix continue to do everything they can to alienate people for paying for the service and sending them to torrent sites.

It's the entire industry. Disney pulling content. ABC pulling content. Fox pulling content, etc etc. There was a golden window where video piracy almost stopped making sense.
Like music piracy no longer makes sense.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

What if your kids are in college dorms?

Are you hung up on the concept that a dorm isn’t called a house?

 

[CWallace]

…and how does one define a „household“ here?

I presume they will do it by IP address range of the devices connecting.

So all the devices in one physical address will count as a "household" and if other devices connect with a different IP address range, they will be defined as a separate "household".

Of course, this is going to be an issue for those in a single "household" who use VPNs to access Netflix content not available in their home country.

 

[NapoleonIV]

1) it is not clear if this applies to the higher tier accounts. If it does, that is a problem.
2) What if I visit someone who doesn't have a Netflix account, and we want to watch something on his or her device? Is that now banned? What if I travel and by a new device?

 

[_OS]

That doesn’t sound like the definition of a household if they don’t live with the account holder.

No what I'm saying is if all the paying members are each using their own login as opposed to all taking turns sharing one account login surely that should be allowed. Also isn't the great thing about Netflix the ability to use it anywhere? What next, if you watch it on your phone/tablet then you have to BE at home?

 

[Bandaman]

Maybe they should stop greenlighting so much garbage if they want to save money and not punish consumers.

Yeah this. 99% of their Netflix originals are trash.

 

[CWallace]

What if your kids are in college dorms?

Different physical address so Netflix will likely consider that a different "household", though they might make exceptions for such institutions.