As a way of trying to prevent password sharing, Netflix recently began testing a way to make users pay if they are lending their account to people who do not live in the same household.
For now, streaming has brought similar solutions to Peru, Chile and Costa Rica. However, it seems that there is still a lot of uncertainty and confusion about how the system works.
But one thing is for sure: Netflix is charging some users an additional fee to allow others outside the household to use the same account.
However, the Rest of World website discovered when talking to some Netflix subscribers in Peru, that most users were not formally informed about the change in usage policies.
In addition, the level of application varied among users. This is because, in some cases, several subscribers were able to ignore the sharing messages without any penalty to the account.
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There is also confusion over Netflix’s definition of “family” – just as some people may consider their immediate family to be “part of home”, even though they live in different households.
Netflix appears to be aware of this, and during a conversation with an anonymous Peruvian customer support representative, it was said that there are instances where subscribers call to inquire about account usage outside of the home.
In a statement, Kumiko Hidaka, a spokeswoman for Netflix, said that from the beginning, the company made it clear that “a Netflix account is for people who live together in a single house. The millions of members who actively share an account in these countries were notified via email, but given the importance of this change, we are increasing notifications in the product more slowly. We are satisfied with the response so far.”
Netflix’s decision is a big step in trying to reverse the financial impact of the platform’s growing loss of subscribers. For the first time in more than a decade, the company reported a decline in earnings.
Additional Netflix Account Sharing Costs
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In the case of Peru, the additional cost for account sharing is lower than signing up as a new user on the platform. There, the company charges an extra 8 soles (R$ 9.50 in direct conversion) per month. With this payment, it is possible to add up to two users who do not live in the same house to the account.
Via: The Verge
