The party’s almost over as the era of Netflix password-sharing will end next month.
“Today’s widespread account sharing (100M+ households) undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business,” Netflix said in a letter to shareholders.
“While our terms of use limit use of Netflix to a household, we recognize this is a change for members who share their account more broadly. As we roll out paid sharing, members in many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with,” it added.
The streaming giant has shared terms detailing how it plans to control the experience within a household.
It aims to curtail account sharing this year by asking people to pay extra money to use the streaming service outside the household for extended periods of time.
“A primary location is set by a TV that is signed into your account and is connected to your Wi-Fi network. All other devices signed into your account on that Wi-Fi network will be associated with your primary location and will be able to use Netflix,” it says.
Netflix will now prompt users to sign onto the WIFI of their home location at least once every 31 days. The platform will still allow subscribers to share the account among multiple devices, but those devices must be from users in the same household. The number of devices with sharing allowed will depend on the tier of one’s Netflix plan.
While a date still isn’t confirmed, the leading streaming giant specified that password-sharing measures will come in later in the first quarter of this year, which would suggest that people can expect them to be in effect by the end of March.