It seems Netflix isn’t too happy with the current situation where people who don’t live in the same households get to share one account password. According to Variety.com, the entertainment site will soon be launching a feature that will prompt primary account holders to pay a little more for users outside their households.
The first countries where this will be tested include Peru, Chile and Costa Rica. It isn’t clear if this will expand to other countries. But, like we saw with the Free Netflix plan, which first launched in Kenya, we can expect slow expansion to other countries.
How does Netflix view a household?
According to Netflix’s terms of use: “The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household.”
So how will Netflix know you’re not of the same household? Will they be looking at the IP Addresses before allowing access? What of people who live in a household but have traveled apart? What of families who don’t live together?
This isn’t clear yet.
You will remember that the company never reports viewership of popular shows in terms of views. Rather, they always say a particular title has been viewed by say 20 million households. Which could mean, even if an account has 4 profiles and they all watch a show, they only count it as one.
Pay more for other members:
According to Variety, there will be an “Add Extra Member” feature under the Standard and Premium plans. It will cost less money to use the feature than to get a whole other account. Which appears to be a means of Netflix just bumping up prices of their plans.
Are you willing to pay more money so as to add extra members to your Netflix account?
