Still couldn’t finish that season of “Stranger Things” you’ve been watching on your ex-roommate’s old Netflix account?
You better hurry: Changes are coming to the streaming platform’s password-sharing policies — and Americans might be the next to get banned.
The Los Gatos-based technology and entertainment company said: press release Wednesday. “Over the past year, we have been exploring different ways to tackle this problem in Latin America, and we are now ready to roll it out more widely in the coming months, starting today in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.”
The drastic measures outlined in the Netflix announcement include setting account holders a primary location for their household, then paying the equivalent of four to seven US dollars a month, per profile, to add up to other users who don’t live there.
“A Netflix account is for a single family,” the press release states — a very different framework for the service than the one many subscribers know and love.
A company spokesperson declined to say if or when the policy changes announced Wednesday will make landfall in the United States, only reaffirming the line about a broader rollout soon.
The news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following the company’s ongoing war against password-sharing software. Netflix said in January Shareholder letter that the company expects to “begin rolling out paid participation more broadly” at some point in the current fiscal quarter.
Password sharing is a widespread problem for Netflix and its competitors in the streaming space Markets appeared To help people find and buy account passwords for cheap.
Losses pile up — one estimate put lost revenue in the account sharing at $25 billion annually, a quarter of which comes from Netflix’s pockets. Amid slowing subscriber growth and downturn across the technology sectorthe pressure on the company to adapt is increasing.
Analysts say that while sharing passwords is somewhat tolerated as a customer acquisition strategy, it eventually begins to limit growth.
“We’re seeing a tipping point starting to have such an impact on subscriber growth, that it’s forcing broadcasters to start taking action,” Ken Gerstein, vice president of sales at anti-piracy consultancy NAGRA, told The Times last April.
In early 2022, Netflix said it was testing features in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru that would allow accounts to pay a little extra to share access with up to two people outside their primary home — the same policy now being implemented in Canada and three other countries.
A change appeared to be imminent last week when information about password policy was tested in Latin America became visible in other countries, which has led to reports that the policy is being publicized more widely.
A company spokesperson said at the time: “For a while… an article was published in the Help Center containing information that only applies to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru in other countries.” “We’ve updated it since then.”
Now, however, the company’s march against password-sharing software continues far ahead, including in America’s neighbor to the north.