Netflix plans to introduce official sharing accounts.
Netflix tests paid sub-accounts. AOP
For years, Netflix has been wrestling with subscribers sharing their usernames with friends and family and relatives living in different households. Netflix Terms of Use prohibit the distribution of logos outside the household:
“The Netflix Service and any content available through the Service is for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be distributed to anyone outside your household,” Netflix terms of use it is said.
Despite the ban, it is really common for the same symbols to be widely used. This way, only one person has to pay for the service, when, for example, with a family subscription, you can watch content on four devices at the same time, regardless of location.
Netflix has now announced changes to the sharing accounts. Netflix intends to test separate paid profiles that can be tied to a so-called main profile. This allows the content to be viewed outside the household without violating the terms of use.
– We’ve always made it easy to share a Netflix account with people living together, because our Standard and Premium subscriptions have features like separate profiles and simultaneous streaming. While these things have been very popular, they have created confusion about when and how Netflix can be distributed, Netflix Product Innovation Director Chengyi Long write in a bulletin.
– As a result, accounts are shared among households, which affects our ability to invest in new series and movies for our members.
Long says Netflix has been looking for solutions that allow non-household members to use the same account by “paying a little more”. Testing will begin in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru, after which the company will decide whether to deploy the feature more widely in the world.
In the experiment, administrators can register sub-accounts for two people who do not live in the same household. These sub-accounts have their own profile, personal recommendations, their own login ID and password. In the press release, Netflix states that the price of such a sub-account is approximately three euros.
Netflix is clearly aware of the intensified competition between streaming services and the related price competition. In addition, Netflix recently announced its withdrawal from Russia.
Long notes in a press release that Netflix is trying to find features that are “flexible and useful for members whose subscriptions fund content on Netflix”.