Netflix Cracks Down on Account Sharing Between Households

In an email sent to American users Tuesday, Netflix issued a new set of guidelines for users who wish to share accounts, as part of its push to crack down on password sharing between households.

"A Netflix account is for use by one household. Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are—at home, on the go, on holiday—and take advantage of new features like Transfer Profile and Manage Access and Devices," the company said in the statement.

Subscribers who wish to share their Netflix account with someone outside of their household will now have to pay $7.99 a month or have to transfer any profiles outside of the home to a new account.

How Does This Impact You?

If you’re a Netflix subscriber who hasn’t shared your login information with anyone outside of your household and doesn’t intend to do so in the future, you’ll most likely be unaffected by the new guidelines.

If you wish to share your account with a person outside of your household, you’ll have to pay the $7.99 fee or transfer your profile to a separate paid account.

A Growing Pain for Netflix

Password sharing has become a growing issue for Netflix, resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue, as millions of people have gained access to streaming content for free that they otherwise would have to pay for. Account sharing could have contributed to Netflix’s first subscriber loss in more than a decade in early 2022.

According to company reports, up to 100 million households, or 43% of Netflix users globally, share accounts. Netflix has already implemented crackdowns on account sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain, and was expected to roll out a similar crackdown in the U.S. in the first quarter, but postponed it until now.

Netflix (NFLX) shares fell almost 2% today. They’re up 23% so far this year, slightly outperforming an 18% gain in the broader consumer discretionary sector over the same period.