Netflix is set to launch tests in Costa Rica, Chile, and Peru to find out if users will be willing to pay extra to share their accounts with non-subscribers, or people beyond their households.
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans. While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared,” Chengyi Long, Netflix’s Product Innovation Director, noted that the phenomenon of password-sharing of an account impacted the platform’s ability to invest in television and films.
The step follows, after the streaming platform’s decision to deal with the menace of password-sharing more aggresively, since it is competing with the growing OTT market. While the effort to curb password-sharing began in 2019, it wasn’t until last year that Netflix had aggressively pursued an anti-sharing stance.
In 2021, the platform had started a “purge” on the password-sharing trend, by cracking down on non-subscribers using someone else’s password. Instances of non-subscribers receiving a screen prompt that asked for user authorisation via one-time passwords had started doing the rounds.
Apart from password-sharing, there is also subscription-sharing, wherein, an individual creates an account, known as the “account owner” while others, non-family members, pay or pitch-in to avail the services as a collective. This is majorly practised to access premium services or plans with the maximum number of screens. However, the platforms’ payment system accepts and acknowledges only an individual payment.
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Thus, the new test will allow users to add more people with a sum in addition to the existing plans. For instance, the basic, standard, and premium plans for Costa Rica are priced at $8.99, $12.99, and $15.99, respectively. An addition of two more subscribers will entail the subscribers to pay an extra $2.99.
In addition to this, Netflix has also announced a second feature that will aid the primary subscribers by enabling them to transfer user profiles to new accounts called ‘Extra Member’ accounts. This would make it easier for dependent users to pay for their own plans.