Netflix subscriptions are often shared between friends and family members. That is one subscription instead of many. But it is not good business for the streaming giant. The company dabbled with the idea of an additional security layer to block access to those whose locations are not the same as those of account holders.“If you don’t live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching” was the message displayed for some users early last year. Netflix later called this a routine test to keep strangers out. The message has not been reported since.Netflix has announced measures to now stop access to users whose locations are not the same as those of the account holders. The test tun will start in the next few weeks in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru. There will also be the option of a bolt-on subscription for more users, who do not live with the account holders.“We have always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans. While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared,” said Chengyi Long, director, product innovation, Netflix.In the Q4 2021, Netflix added 8.28 million paid subscribers globally compared to 8.5 million in the same period a year before. The forecast is for 2.5 million new subscribers in the first three months of 2022. It will be lesser than the 3.98 million added during the same period in 2021.According to research by Magid in late 2020, around 33% of all Netflix users share their passwords with at least one more user outside the household. The sample size for the survey was 2,235 globally.Netflix is enforcing the terms of service, which all users agree to before setting up their accounts. “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. During your Netflix membership we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access the Netflix service and Netflix content,” says the policy.Extra member subscriptions can be added to regular Standard and Premium subscription plans for $2.99 in Costa Rica (around ₹227), 2,380 CLP in Chile, and 7.9 PEN in Peru. India is not included in the test phase. There will also be the option of transferring a profile of a user to a new account, with its own Standard or Premium subscription.In December, Netflix reduced subscription prices in India by as much as 60%. It now costs ₹149 per month for the Netflix Mobile plan (instead of ₹199), ₹199 for the Basic plan, ₹499 for Standard, and Premium for ₹649 per month. It is always the multi-screen plans, in this case, Standard and Premium, which are often the basis for sharing subscriptions beyond the household.
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Vishal Mathur is Technology Editor for Hindustan Times. When not making sense of technology, he often searches for an elusive analog space in a digital world.
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