Netflix doesn’t think it’s chill anymore: stop sharing your password!
Netflix is having a hard time. The streaming service is rapidly losing subscribers and is now really going to work on illegal password sharing.
We’ve written about it before. Netflix no longer allows you to share your password with your entire family. So no more an expensive family subscription where brother, sister, father and father-in-law and the bonus mom watch on the same password.
Contrary to what Netflix CEO Reed Hastings stated in 2016, Netflix does not think it is okay if you share your password with multiple people. In 2016, Netflix didn’t make the p*s lukewarm whether you shared passwords.
But now that Netflix’s declining subscriber numbers in Q1 of 2022 have multiplied once again in Q2 of 2022, the streaming service is making more work of what they see as “illegal” viewing. In the future, it will cost a lot of money if you want to hitch a ride with more people on one subscription.
Latin America
For some reason, Netflix chose to start with Latin America. Extensive testing has already been carried out in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru and now the streaming service announces that it will roll out for real in the first five countries.
The lucky five countries are Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Netflix gives it an “Add a home” jacket. You can add a household to your subscription for a reduced monthly fee.
Missed out on billions
Netflix estimates that 100 million people worldwide are “piggybacking” on someone else’s subscription. In the eyes of Netflix, that means 100 million non-paying households. According to the streaming service, this would mean that they lose about 9 to 25 billion euros annually by sharing Netflix passwords.
Quite a wide margin if you ask us. Especially because you already have to take out a more expensive subscription, you want to do password sharing. Only the most expensive subscription offers you the opportunity to use Netflix on a substantial number of different devices at the same time. So basically you’re already paying for it.
Is it all getting too expensive? The cheaper subscription with advertising is also on the way. It is not yet known when all this will also come to the Netherlands. But restrictions on Netflix password sharing are expected this year.
