Time’s almost up for people who share Netflix passwords with people living outside of their household. Arriving on the heels of the streamer’s announcement that it will no longer offer DVDs to subscribers, it looks like the password sharing crackdown is coming soon.
During its first quarter 2023 earnings report, Netflix revealed that it would start blocking devices trying to access the streaming service outside of a household without paying. In a statement to shareholders, the streamer elaborated a bit more: “In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results. We are planning a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2.”
Blocking access outside of households has already been rolled out in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. If an attempt is made to access an account from outside a household, the option to buy an extra member subscription is presented so that account owners can allow access for people who don’t live with them.
For Netflix subscribers who travel frequently, access to accounts will continue as usual. The crackdown targets friends and family who share passwords so that multiple people from outside a household access one account. But this could be confusing in a number of ways.
In theory, college students would be impacted by this new ruling, as they live outside of the household, and would therefore either need their own account or an extra member account to be added to their parents’ account if they share accounts with their families back home. It’s unclear at this point whether members of the military who might use Netflix while deployed would need their own account or if deployment will be considered the same as travel.
Yes, it’s a little confusing. There will no doubt be customers who fall through the cracks in this crackdown.
Variety notes that co-CEO Greg Peters acknowledged that “this will not be a universally popular move” during the Q4 2022 earnings call.
However, given how many people give their passwords to friends, significant others and relatives, there does seem to be a need to curtail the widespread use of the same account by large numbers of people who don’t share an address. As Netflix looks to expand original content, it needs to keep growing subscriber numbers and that growth won’t come if people continue to share their accounts rather than pay for their own.
Obviously this is a developing story so be sure to check back in the coming weeks and months for updates.
