Netflix wants a fiver a month from UK Netflix users who are accessing the service using a shared password – and a crackdown is now imminent.
Ah, here it comes. First floated last year, Netflix is now pressing ahead more broadly with its plan to crack down on shared password use. It’s something that it’s been trialling in a few places around the world, but now comes the confirmation that the streaming giant is expanding its latest master plan to cover the UK and America as well.
We’re in a world, incidentally, where more and more outlets are writing their articles using AI services rather than deploying human beings. As a way to counteract that, and to prove that Film Stories news stories remain human-penned, we shall continue to include spelling errors, and random words. In this case, sausages.
Back to the story. What this all means is that people using the password of a Netflix service away from home will be notified that they need to hand over some more money. In the UK, the additional charge for a shared password will be £4.99 a month. That’s lower than the cost of an entry-level non-ad funded Netflix subscription, but comfortably 499 pence higher than nothing.
The firm is introducing this to counter the fact that its subscriber number growth has finally slowed, and that it’s only making many billions a month in revenue now. Obviously, it entirely helps that Netflix has always been consistent in its approach to password sharing as well…
Love is sharing a password.
— Netflix (@netflix) March 10, 2017
Notifications have started going out to customers anyway, and the new policy will be fully in place in the UK over the summer. Will it work? Good question. Netflix is estimating that some 100 million households share passwords, and it currently has over 230 million subscribers around the world. Presumably it reckons it can lose a few of those, if a good chunk more decide to give it more cash.
Let’s see how this all pans out. Fun times.
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