New Delhi: Streaming giant Netflix may soon start charging users who share their account's password with family and friends. Netflix is mulling to stop password sharing outside a single household and charge users extra for doing so, in a bid to stay afloat amid the rising competition from streaming rivals. The streaming major, over the next few weeks, will launch and test two new features for its members in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru that will put a check on the trend of password sharing of a Netflix account. It is not yet known when the feature will be tested in India.
"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. As a result, accounts are being shared between households -- impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members," Chengyi Long, Director, Product Innovation at Netflix, said in a statement.
With this, members on Netflix Standard and Premium plans will be able to add sub-accounts for up to two people they don’t live with -- each with their own profile, personalised recommendations, login and password -- at a price of 2,380 CLP in Chile, 2.99 USD in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
Members with Netflix Basic, Standard, and Premium plans can enable people who share their account to transfer profile information either to a new account or an Extra Member sub-account -- keeping the viewing history, My List, and personalized recommendations.
"We recognise that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films. We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world," long added.