Netflix Ends Password Sharing In 4 Countries. Is India Next?

Netflix is rolling out its crackdown on password sharing in four more countries: Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain, in a bid to gain paying subscribers.

Over the last year, the company was exploring different approaches to address password sharing in regions such as Latin America.

Netflix is rolling out its crackdown on password sharing in four more countries: Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain, in a bid to gain paying subscribers. The streaming giant is ending password sharing in those countries and its users in these countries are being asked to pay an extra fee if they want to share subscriptions with their friends and family who don't live with them.

India could be on the streaming major's list where it ends password sharing. However, there is no indication from the company in this regard yet.

Over the last year, the company was exploring different approaches to address password sharing in regions such as Latin America. "...We’re now ready to roll them out more broadly in the coming months, starting today in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. Our focus has been on giving members greater control over who can access their account," the company announced on Thursday in a blog post.

According to Netflix, more than 100 million households are sharing accounts and that is impacting the company's "ability to invest in great new TV and films."

"Members on our Standard or Premium plan in many countries (including Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain) can add an extra member sub-account for up to two people they don’t live with -- each with a profile, personalized recommendations, login and password -- for an extra CAD$7.99 a month per person in Canada, NZD$7.99 in New Zealand, Euro 3.99 in Portugal and Euro 5.99 in Spain," Netflix added.

To recall, new company CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters last month confirmed details about ending password sharing.

He also mentioned that “the vast majority of people who are not paying for Netflix will have to pay for it. It gets to a pretty firm kind of position. This is not gonna be a universally popular kind of event. There will be unhappy customers.”

In October last year, Netflix announced a "Profile Transfer" feature to prevent password sharing. The streamer had said that the new feature has been rolled out to all members globally. The "much-requested" feature allows users to transfer their personalised recommendations, viewing history, My List, saved games, and other preferences to a new account when they start their own membership, the company had said.

Advertising is another focus area for the streaming giant; it introduced an ad-supported tier for its users in November last year. Netflix calls its new ad-supported plan Basic with Ads. It was introduced starting at $6.99 per month in regions like Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Spain and the US.