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Netflix’s crackdown on people who share their account password has arrived in the UK, forcing ‘Flix freeloaders to pay their way’.
The streaming giant only allows users to use each other’s accounts if they live in the same household.
The popular binging service – which has more than 230 million subscribers – made the announcement this week in more than 100 countries.
Users will have to spend an extra £4.99 per month if they want a person they don’t live with to use their account.
They have not said how they plan to authenticate subscribers’ identities or accounts.
The streaming giant only allows users to use each other’s accounts if they live in the same household
The popular binging service – which has more than 230 million subscribers – made the announcement in more than 100 countries this week
They have not said how they plan to authenticate subscribers’ identities or accounts
The news is delivered to their customers in an email explaining sharing policies and new features.
The company said: ‘A Netflix account is for use by one household. Everyone in that household can use Netflix anywhere — at home, on the road, on vacation — and take advantage of new features like Transfer Profile and Manage Access and Devices.
“We recognize that our members have many entertainment choices. That’s why we continue to invest heavily in a wide variety of new movies and TV shows. So whatever your taste, mood or language and whoever you’re watching with, there’s always something fun to watch on Netflix.”
And anyone who already has a separate Netflix profile on someone else’s account can transfer their profile to a new membership – which they then have to pay for.
There will also be new features to help users see who is using their account and ensure anyone who shouldn’t have access is removed.
The rules will still allow users to take full advantage of the streaming platform when on vacation or on the road, but only for people living in the same house.
The program has already been rolled out in Latin America, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.
But it hasn’t met with overwhelming success — it lost more than a million Spanish subscribers in the first three months of 2023, according to data analytics company Kantar.
Users will have to spend an extra £4.99 per month if they want a person they don’t live with to use their account. Pictured: A logo sign outside Netflix’s California headquarters
The streaming mogul revealed in January that the number of people sharing accounts had passed 100 million
The much-anticipated move has been looming in the UK since it was unveiled by Netflix in 2021 to end lost revenue.
The streaming mogul revealed in January that the number of people sharing accounts had passed 100 million.
In 2022, they admitted it had been a “tough year” due to the first subscriber loss in more than a decade – the customer base fell by 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter.
In January, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters acknowledged that the crackdown on password sharing could see more subscriber cancellations.
“It’s worth noting that this won’t be a widely popular move,” Peters advised investors.
On Netflix, a single account could previously host up to five “profiles,” each individually named and curated for a particular person.
Each user can enjoy custom features – such as algorithm-driven viewing recommendations, viewing history, and settings – on their profile.
Netflix originally designed this feature so that multiple members of a household, such as children, can enjoy content without having to start their own Netflix account and pay the monthly fee.
The rules will still allow users to take full advantage of the streaming platform when on vacation or on the move, but only for people living in the same house
Netflix has certainly changed its tune since tweeting “Love is sharing a password” in 2017
But so far there’s been nothing stopping its use in multiple homes, even though Netflix’s terms of service have long said that users of an account must live in the same household.
In effect, it has meant that five people living under five different addresses can have their own profile under one account – in other words, five different people get Netflix for the price of one.
According to Netflix, this act robs the company of a potential source of revenue and “undermines our ability to invest in and improve our service over the long term.”
Netflix has definitely changed tunes since then tweeting ‘Love is a password to share’ in 2017.
But in December, a government agency warned that sharing passwords for online streaming services with friends and family is actually against the law.
Watching shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ without paying for the relevant subscription is a copyright infringement, the Intellectual Property Office claimed.
A spokesman said: “There are a range of criminal and civil law provisions that may apply in the case of password sharing.”