Netflix confirms it will ask users to pay extra if they share their password with friends

Netflix charges additional fees from subscribers who share their login credentials with others. The new rates will be levied on users from 2023.

Netflix users can transfer their profile to avoid extra costs

By Divya Bhatic: Netflix breathed a sigh of relief after recording 2.4 million new subscribers in the third quarter of 2022. The OTT platform was confronted for the first time in the first two quarters of this year with a drop in subscriber numbers as a result continued adverse economic conditions, increasing competition in the OTT space and increased demand for content. But one of the most worrying reasons behind the subscriber decline was password sharing. And to deal with this situation, Netflix now charges an additional fee from users for sharing their passwords.

Netflix has announced that it will start charging users extra in 2023 for sharing their accounts with other users. The fee is added to the billing information in the form of “additional members”. Netflix has still not disclosed how much subscribers will be charged for sharing their passwords with other users. However, some sources indicate that the additional fee that Netflix charges will be between $3 and $4.

Meanwhile, Netflix has also introduced the new migration tool for users who don’t want to pay the extra fee. The migration tool “allows people using your account to transfer a profile — preserving the personalized recommendations, watch history, My List, saved games and other settings — when they start their own membership,” notes Netflix.

Netflix reportedly lost nearly 200,000 paid subscribers in the March quarter and nearly 970,000 paid subscribers in the June quarter. However, its third quarter revenue report revealed that Netflix has regained 2.41 million subscribers. To further boost revenue, Netflix has also announced cheaper ad-supported plans. The Basic with Ads plan has 5 minutes of advertising per hour and is cheaper compared to regular plans. For example, in the US, Netflix starts at $6.99 per month (compared to $9.99 today). These plans will be cheaper while still providing good quality streaming content. As a result, increasing more subscribers.

The Netflix ad-supported subscription launches November 1 in Canada and Mexico; November 3 in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, UK and US; and November 10 in Spain. While no similar plans have been announced for India, the OTT giant is expected to bring them to the country soon.