Netflix announced that it will begin charging for account sharing in over 100 countries where its service is available.
Netflix has started charging an account sharing fee of $7.99/month in the US. Photo: AFP.
In a statement released on May 24th, Netflix mentioned that it has sent emails notifying users who are sharing accounts outside of their households in the United States. The content of the email explicitly states that customers who share the app’s account outside of their household will have to pay an additional fee of $7.99 per month.
Netflix is now starting to expand the practice of charging for shared accounts among users who do not “live in the same household” as the account owner. This will be done by tracking IP addresses, device IDs, and other activities associated with Netflix accounts.
Previously, the platform tested an additional fee feature for users who wanted to share Netflix accounts in some Latin American countries, with an extra fee of approximately $3 per account.
In these countries, the account owner has to provide verification codes to non-household users whenever they want to access the account. Netflix will also continuously request verification codes until the process of paying the monthly supplementary fee for additional non-household users is completed.
Currently, Netflix is sending emails regarding the account sharing fee policy to customers in 103 countries and territories. The emails make it clear that Netflix accounts should only be used and shared within a household. Customers will have to pay an additional fee if there is an extra shared account outside of their household.
The company has estimated that there are over 100 million households that have shared their login information with friends and non-household family members. As of the end of March, Netflix had a total of 232.5 million paying customers worldwide.
Under the new policy, individuals within the same household can continue to share a Netflix account and use it on multiple devices while traveling.
@Zing News