Everyone has to pay extra
It will soon be more expensive: Netflix is preparing to end subscription friendships
No more fun: Netflix is preparing to put an end to relaxed account sharing.
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Netflix is introducing a really great new feature. Because profiles can finally be secured and removed from an account. But the intentions are less good-natured – the end of shared accounts is near.
You give good friends a password – right? Shared Netflix accounts have been part of the streaming world for years, and rarely does one person buy access to the premium subscription just for themselves. It was too easy to share the password and significantly reduce the cost per viewer. For a long time, Netflix not only tolerated the sharing of accounts, but even actively advocated it. That’s what it said in March 2017 Twitter: “Love means sharing a password.” However, this love costs Netflix hard cash – and that is why the group is now supplying virtual moving boxes to at least technically facilitate the separation.
Everything must Go
In concrete terms, individual profiles should soon be able to be transferred to another – ideally new – account. This means that all the data in a profile, i.e. films and series already seen, preferences, ratings, the watch list and – probably most importantly – the last time an episode was stopped (title history) can be saved.
According to Netflix, the feature is theoretically available to all users now, but in practice it will take a while for every account to have the option. Netflix writes that an email will follow as soon as you are able to save profiles. There’s talk of having to “hover over your profile icon in the drop-down menu on the homepage”, which means that the data can only be transferred via a PC – not on the TV or mobile device.
Netflix officially states that the reason for the new function is that many people would have wished for exactly that, because when “families grow” or “relationships end”, the Netflix account should not be affected.
If you want to stay, you have to pay rent
But the first point that Netflix makes is much more important. There it says: “People are moving” – and that’s exactly what it’s going to be about in the near future. Because with Netflix working on ad-supported subscriptions (read more here), splitting shared accounts is the next step. In either case, Netflix could be able to halt the downward trend in active accounts and salvage its stock price — if it doesn’t backfire and end up with fewer people watching Netflix.
Netflix has been offering another option, namely an additional fee for viewers from another household, since March 2022 – the streaming provider initially started with it in South America. Converted, each “external” profile there costs an additional 3 US dollars per month. So far, there is no such possibility in Germany.
However you want to solve it: Netflix will most likely become more expensive in the future if you don’t finance the account yourself anyway. Maybe even then – because in the USA the prices are currently higher than the German tariffs. The premium tariff there currently costs 20 US dollars per month. If Netflix adjusts that, it’s going to be expensive.
source: Netflix