Is the breastfeeding over? Netflix will block account sharing in more regions soon

In December the The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix would end password sharing, starting with tests in some regions of the world, but now the Streaming Giant has revealed that this block will roll out more widely as early as the first quarter of 2023.

The change was revealed in an open letter to Netflix shareholders published on January 19, 2023 regarding the company’s fourth quarter 2022 results.

Today’s widespread account sharing (over 100 million households) undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business. While our terms of use limit your use of Netflix to one family, we recognize that this is a change for members who share your account more broadly.

Breaking it down a bit further, Netflix estimates that 222 million households share their accounts with over 100 million households. The idea then is that these 100 million pay for this share to generate more revenue for Netflix, which would be reinvested in productions and improvements for streaming.

Netflix account sharing is currently active in the following countries:

• Costa Rica: additional US$ 2.99 (BRL 15.18)
• Peru: additional 7.9 PEN (BRL 10.78)
• Chile: additional 2,380 Pesos (BRL 15.11)

It is worth mentioning that the additional fee is not a one-time fee, and must be paid by each family in another household that wishes to use the same account. According to The Wall Street, the fee for sharing an account in the United States should be US$ 6.99 (~R$ 36) per additional user, there is still no information about this value for Europe.

To prevent account sharing Netflix must use tools such as detection of IP addresses, device IDs and account activity monitoring. It is worth saying that the use of multiple screens in the same house will continue to be allowed.

Although this strategy is new, Netflix has always included terms in its contracts saying that account sharing would only be allowed for users who live at the same address, so it was somewhat expected that this restriction would be applied at some point.