Are you still watching?
Many may no longer be on Netflix.
The era of Netflix password sharing is coming to an end.
The streaming giant lost subscribers for the first time in a decade last year. Now, Netflix is done letting people share their accounts.
More than 100 million users share their Netflix accounts. And the company wants in on that cash.
In the coming year, Netflix will take cues from its competitors at HBO Max and Hulu, offering different tiered subscriptions. One will be cheaper and supported by advertisements for those who do not want to pay more, CNBC reports.
The streaming company has made a ton of efforts to get more paying users on its platform.
In November of last year, it launched a cheaper $6.99 ad-supported monthly plan in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, Korea and Brazil.
Meanwhile, it has also launched tools to kick devices off a subscription and transfer a profile from one membership to another to stop account sharing.
All these efforts have brought in more subscribers to the service. During its recent Q4 2022 quarterly results, the company said it added 7.7 million subscribers — much higher than the anticipated 4.5 million additions.
Netflix will go through a product overhaul under the new co-CEO Greg Peters (formerly COO) after founder Reed Hastings stepped down from the post last month. At the same time, the company said that it will crack down on password sharing “more broadly” in the coming months. Extra member fees will likely come to more countries soon.
An update to the streaming giant’s help page revealed some fresh details of how the company will finally take a tougher stance against the practice.
While logins will still be shareable within a single home, Netflix has outlined new measures to ensure that any device which uses the account is associated with the account holder’s primary location.
Netflix is still the main streaming platform, with more than 230 million subscribers around the world.
But competition has increased. It is no longer just competing with HBO and Amazon Prime, but more internet-based things, like YouTube and even with TikTok.
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