Netflix Cracking Down on Subscription Freeloaders

Are you a Netflix subscriber that lends out your account login to family and friends outside your house? If so, you may want to pay close attention because Netflix is cracking down on that activity. They are literally targeting users that do this. If you are one, then you could potentially see a hike in your bill.

Netflix looking to control access better

It is no secret that companies such as Netflix would love to have every viewer a paid subscriber. It just makes sense. Companies want money. They need money to pay employees, bills, etc. Just simple economics.

Variety.com pulled this quote from the Netflix blog, “We’ve 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,” Long wrote in a blog post about the test. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”

What that means is, the company is looking into ways to improve their bottom line. Of course they mention “…to invest in great new…”content but that is just to ease over naysayers a bit.

How much, when, and how they can enforce it

Right now, tests are running in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica. The options include letting subscribers pay for additional, non-household, members to be added. There is a fee for this, about $3 per month. This option is apparently available to add up to two new users to your account. That is versus a brand new subscription for those users (starting at about $9 per month in Costa Rica).

“We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world,” Long wrote in the post.

Now, non-household subscribers would get their own access just like they had a separate subscription. Their own watch list, password, log in, recommendations, etc.

According to Variety.com, in early 2021 Netflix began asking subscribers to verify ownership of the account. This could be an email with a link to click or text message to the phone number on file. This is meant to coax freeloaders into getting their own accounts rather than annoy the account holder for that information.