In 2016, then-CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings, said that it was OK to share Netflix passwords and that “it really hasn’t been a problem.” Fast forward to a new CEO, a pandemic and a whopping four price increases later and that has unsurprisingly not lasted. We heard last year that Netflix was instituting new measures to discourage account sharing, including verification. They’re now testing a new feature in selected markets that will allow add-on accounts in separate households, for an additional fee, without verification.

Netflix will begin testing a new, opt-in feature that will prompt subscribers to pay extra if sharing the service with people outside their own household. The feature will allow households to add up to two “sub accounts” for a fee that’s less than the cost of the full-priced Netflix service. The new option will initially be tested in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru and will roll out over the next few weeks to those markets. The company didn’t say if or when the feature would be rolled out to global subscribers.

At launch, Netflix’s Standard and Premium subscribers in the test markets will be offered the option to add sub accounts to their service for people they don’t live with. Each sub account will have its own profile and personalized recommendations, as usual. But what makes this feature different is that the sub accounts willl also have their own Netflix login and password. Plus, if they ever choose to set up their own Netflix service under their name and billing information, their viewing history, watch list (“My List”), and personalized recommendations will transfer over.

To make this feature work, Netflix isn’t relying on location-based data, like GPS. Instead, the company is leveraging the same information it uses to provide its service today to its end users, including an IP address, device IDs and other information about devices signed into the Netflix account across the household. Using this information, Netflix can identify when there’s persistent sharing taking place outside a household.

To enable the new sub accounts, the main account owner will receive an email with a code that they’ll need to use to verify the additional devices are a part of their household.

The cost for the extra non-household members in the test markets is 2,380 CLP in Chile, $2.99 USD in Costa Rica and 7.9 PEN in Peru. This is less expensive than a full Netflix account plan, but it’s also more than it previously cost to share someone’s Netflix account for free. Netflix notes the extra members won’t be paying for their account separately — the Netflix bill still goes to the main account holder. (If that person wants to charge their extra members for the new fees, that’s up to them to handle and collect.)

[From TechCrunch]

TechCrunch has a more about whether these separate households will be counted as subscribers (they won’t, for now) and about Netflix’s pressure to retain subscribers in the face of so much more competition. We just heard that Amazon acquired MGM for a jaw-dropping $8.5 billion, however unless they hire an entire new usability team to fix their sh-tty app, they’re not going to be able to compete with the other streamers. Netflix is easier to use and makes it easier to find content.

I’m OK with this additional fee, especially if it gets my brother off my account, but there are way too many streamers now. The way to stay competitive is not to increase costs and make it more difficult to use.

Also I just binged Bad Vegan! It was insane. We really need to educate people about coercive control and emotional abuse. I might cover it separately on Monday, let me know if you’d like me to.

Photos credit: Netflix