Netflix Testing Password Sharing Plan That Costs $3 Extra in Latin America

[MacRumors]

Netflix is working to crack down on account sharing between households, and is now testing an added fee for Netflix users in Latin America who have provided their passwords to people outside of their immediate home. As reported by Bloomberg, Netflix customers who share their passwords in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic will need to pay additional money.

Netflix had previously been testing an add-on fee for account sharing in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, but the test is now expanding to additional countries. In Argentina, customers will need to pay 219 pesos ($1.70), while the fee will be $2.99 in other countries.

Netflix's terms of service do not allow for multi-household account sharing, but Netflix has tended to look the other way as password sharing is a common practice. The company is no longer willing to allow the practice to go on because it has been losing money as of late.

In the first quarter of 2022, Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in 10 years, and the losses are expected to continue. As a result, Netflix is ending account sharing and is also working on an ad-supported streaming tier that will be more affordable.

An estimated 222 million paying households are sharing with an additional 100 million households that are not being monetized, and Netflix is planning to implement "more effective monetization of multi-household sharing" as part of a strategy to increase revenue.

Customers in countries where Netflix is testing added fees will have the option to pay the fee for access or move to a new, paid account. Netflix is allowing people to access their accounts while traveling, but if a person uses an account in a place that is not one of their paying households for over two weeks, the company will send an in-app notification requiring them to add a household for a fee or change the primary household.

Netflix has said that it is working to understand how the password-sharing crackdown will work in test countries before expanding the fee to additional countries.

Netflix continues to be the only major 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 Password Sharing Plan That Costs $3 Extra in Latin America

 

[randomthoughts]

If I’m paying $20 a month for 4 simultaneous streams, why can’t one of those streams be for my mom? If they are going to play these games, I want a plan with Ultra HD and 1 single stream. I’m not going to pay for 4 streams that I can never use just to have 4k. If they do this, I’m canceling my Netflix subscription.

 

[icanhazmac]

And how exactly will they determine who is sharing a password with another household versus those who travel extensively for work and use Netflix on a mobile device while away from home?

I'm no password sharing thief but I travel a lot and tend to stay in the same areas when traveling, just try to charge me for that and I will cancel promptly!

Also wonder how they plan to deal with VPN customers as our IPs can be all over the place.

 

[spazzcat]

Netflix is always looking for that next buck ... Maybe if they stop canceling shows after two years and add better content, people would want to sign up and stay.

 

[The Clark]

The value just isn't there anymore. There's too many other streaming services, plus Youtube alone provides me with a lifetime of free content.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

People in Latin America will be better off canceling their Netflix membership. There are other affordable options available.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Netflix is always looking for that next buck ... Maybe if they stop canceling shows after two years and add better content, people would want to sign up and stay.

Well, part of the problem is also charging for higher resolution content. Who does that?

 

[Premium1]

Ah yes that is the way to really get more customers to sign up. Netflix has to have some of the dumbest marketing people out there. The people mooching were never going to sign up in the first place. All this will do is make people who might have been sharing cancel.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If Netflix truly wanted to crackdown, they would refuse service to the accounts in question. All this is is an additional way for them to generate revenue.

 

[Realityck]

Well, part of the problem is also charging for higher resolution content. Who does that?

Hmmm HBO Max does come closer, but then hardly any 4k content they have. Those two are both different from the other. What one lacks the other has.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Hope this backfires, and hope they really feel the pain.
Losing the office at the end of 2020 was really the beginning of the end for Netflix, and they’ve been making mistake after mistake ever since

 

[Takeo]

Jokes on you Netflix, I cancelled my subscription last month.

 

[happydude]

1) the pushback on this reminds me (sort of, take this lightly please) of apple setting up iTunes and music store and people like - woah woah woah, I can get it off napster/limewire for free! ...digitally aging myself here...
2) Netflix has a right to try to squeeze as much money as they can. I'm sure they've done some ROI research and know some people will cancel but enough won't and enough will pay the extra $3 they'll prob come out ahead.
3) but, tbh, still a stupid idea.
4) I'd like some assurance in the least I'm not getting flagged when I travel for work and watch something on my iPad in a hotel room away from home. "for more than 2 weeks" is a little ambiguous. more than 2 weeks total or in one stretch? it's still my account and still me. how they gonna figure that out? I'm away from home for work approx 45 days per year for example.

 

[bobmans]

Stop charging more for higher resolution and maybe I'll stop sharing my account.

 

[CWallace]

And how exactly will they determine who is sharing a password with another household versus those who travel extensively for work and use Netflix on a mobile device while away from home?

I would presume some type of IP / MAC Address tracking.

If you travel, your IP will change with each new access point so it should not be difficult to conclude you are using your own device based on these fluctuations.

If you give your account credentials to a different household, that IP range will not change often and being different from the IP range of the devices in your home, it should not be difficult to conclude you are account sharing and trigger the additional fee.

 

[Realityck]

If I’m paying $20 a month for 4 simultaneous streams, why can’t one of those streams be for my mom? If they are going to play these games, I want a plan with Ultra HD and 1 single stream. I’m not going to pay for 4 streams that I can never use just to have 4k. If they do this, I’m canceling my Netflix subscription.

I think everyone agrees that Netflix needs to offer at minimum 1 stream HD subscriptions for $9.99. But subscriptions against multiple residences some distance away, good luck with that thought.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

And how exactly will they determine who is sharing a password with another household versus those who travel extensively for work and use Netflix on a mobile device while away from home?

I'm no password sharing thief but I travel a lot and tend to stay in the same areas when traveling, just try to charge me for that and I will cancel promptly!

Also wonder how they plan to deal with VPN customers.

Seems easy enough unless you stay at exactly the same location on every trip. If you are moving around even short distances, that's easily detected. If you are not ALWAYS "traveling" at the same spot, that's easily tracked too. For example, suppose you are home on the weekends and away MON-FRI. On the weekends, your away spot shouldn't be logging in as you because you are home.

Maybe you have some workload explosion where you have to stay a few weeks including the weekends? Eventually, you go home and your work "home" should be dark while you are back at home base logging in. That's easily trackable.

If your work home has you so frequently visiting and watching Netflix there, perhaps change your Netflix home address to THAT one and let the infrequent home-home be the occasionally-visited address, since that would fit that scenario and work within this change of policy.

In this situation, the "heavy travelers" are always at exactly the same address... like the person paying for the stream is watching from 2 distant locations AT THE SAME TIME. So Netflix is doing something about that. I'm sure if the people at the distant address can prove that they pay for that stream, exceptions will be granted. If not, they can get Netflix for a fraction of the regular price, which is already dirt cheap relative to the volume and value of the content they want to watch.

If the people at the distant location don't value Netflix enough to pay for it, they can simply lose access to it. If it is all "completely junk" as so many of seem to think, why will those people care about losing complete junk? On the other hand, if those people DO value it, they can get it for much less than pretty much anyone else.

 

[CWallace]

If I’m paying $20 a month for 4 simultaneous streams, why can’t one of those streams be for my mom? If they are going to play these games, I want a plan with Ultra HD and 1 single stream. I’m not going to pay for 4 streams that I can never use just to have 4k.

I expect it comes down to two presumptions on Netflix's part:

1. The majority of households have multiple viewers and that they all like to watch Netflix at the same time so they allow multiple streams in the same household to accommodate this.
2. Netflix wants to charge more for 4K quality streaming, but they feel they need additional incentives beyond just 4K so they offer additional streams (officially within the same household, but unofficially anywhere).

With #2, Netflix is now starting to enforce the "officially" part in order to generate more revenue to help compensate for subscriber loss now that streaming is so much larger than when Netflix's streaming service started and they were effectively the only option.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

Netflix has the right to do this and everyone else has the right to say no. If it works for Netflix then good for them. If it’s a flop then shame on them.

I’d pay $3 extra but I also get Netflix through T-Mobile and my share ends up being $2.50. So I’d pay $5.50 in a heartbeat.

 

[BradWI]

PiVPN should handle travel-related issues. Should always look like you are connecting from your home IP.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

Welcome back Piratebay!

 

[TrenttonY]

I actually buy my movies and tv shows on iTunes, only when I can get them (movies) for $4 dollars each. If I really want to watch any Netflix Originals, I just wait till the end of the year and subscribe for one month then cancel.

If y’all want to save some money, buy an annual Apple Music subscription with Black Friday discounted iTunes cards. Instead of $9.99 a month you can get it to $6.60 a month. Anything helps if you decide streaming is what you’re going to do for years to come.

 

[compwiz1202]

If I’m paying $20 a month for 4 simultaneous streams, why can’t one of those streams be for my mom? If they are going to play these games, I want a plan with Ultra HD and 1 single stream. I’m not going to pay for 4 streams that I can never use just to have 4k. If they do this, I’m canceling my Netflix subscription.

Exactly just make base 720p with one stream, and then pay a little more per quality increase and stream. And don't restrict who uses each stream other than the max concurrent

 

[compwiz1202]

I expect it comes down to two presumptions on Netflix's part:

1. The majority of households have multiple viewers and that they all like to watch Netflix at the same time so they allow multiple streams in the same household to accommodate this.
2. Netflix wants to charge more for 4K quality streaming, but they feel they need additional incentives beyond just 4K so they offer additional streams (officially within the same household, but unofficially anywhere).

With #2, Netflix is now starting to enforce the "officially" part in order to generate more revenue to help compensate for subscriber loss now that streaming is so much larger than when Netflix's streaming service started and they were effectively the only option.

But that's the issue for people like us who don't watch at the same time on different devices. Would like to have quality and number of streams each charged separately. We only need one at 4K. Heck depending on how well our ATV and TV upscale, it might be worth going down a quality tier to save more

 

[Captain_Mac]

If I’m paying $20 a month for 4 simultaneous streams, why can’t one of those streams be for my mom? If they are going to play these games, I want a plan with Ultra HD and 1 single stream. I’m not going to pay for 4 streams that I can never use just to have 4k. If they do this, I’m canceling my Netflix subscription.

Absolutely. It just keeps getting more expensive without better content. If they do this, my subscription is also gone. Not going to tolerate another price hike. Not going to pay for the higher tier just for 4K HDR.