Netflix may allow households to share account for extra fee

Netflix is cracking down on password sharing between users who do not live in the same household.

The streaming giant has been working on ways to enable account sharing between households by paying extra.

“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,” Netflix said in a blog post.

“So for the last year we’ve been working on ways to enable members who share outside their household to do so easily and securely, while also paying a bit more,” it said.

Over the next few weeks, it will launch and test two new features for members in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.

It will let users add an extra member to their account.

“Members on our 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, personalized recommendations, login and password,” it said.

The price for the test is as follows: 2,380 Chilean peso ($2.98) in Chile, $2.99 in Costa Rica, and 7.9 Peruvian sol ($2.12) in Peru.

It is also testing a feature that will let users transfer their profile to a new account.

“Members on our 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,” it explained.

Users can do so while retaining their viewing history, My List, and personalised recommendations.

“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,” it said.