Netflix

Report: Netflix going after password sharing in the US in 2023 with additional charges

Ben Schoon | Dec 22 2022 - 9:05 am PT

After years of turning a blind eye, Netflix is finally making moves to go after password sharing and in 2023, that’s going to affect the US.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix is aiming to “end” the password sharing of an approximate 100 million viewers of the service, looking to monetize those viewers with additional charges.

The report claims that Netflix will bring new charges to account holders in the US in 2023 that allow adding additional households to a subscription. Netflix started testing these fees in countries including Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and other regions. In those test countries, additional users cost $2.99/month on top of the usual account fees. Apparently, additional fees could arrive in the US “early” in 2023.

More than 100 million Netflix viewers now watch the service using passwords they borrow—often from family members or friends, the company says. Netflix has said that it will put an end to that arrangement starting in 2023, asking people who share accounts to pay to do so. The company expects to begin rolling out the change in the U.S. early in the year.

This model of sharing an account with additional fees requires users to sign in with a password, but also verify that sign-in with a code sent to the account holder that expires in 15 minutes.

Currently, Netflix’s policy on account sharing says that accounts are only supposed to be shared by those who live in the same location. It’s a policy shared by many other subscription platforms, but one that’s rarely enforced. Netflix, though, has said that it will enforce this rule by using IP addresses, device IDs, and also account activity.

Netflix has been pushing to put an end to password sharing due to the increasing number of subscribers the service has lost in recent years, and the need for increased revenue that has come from that. The company has also pushed into mobile gaming and is looking at cloud gaming to further bolster its subscription. In November 2021, Netflix also introduced an ad-supported subscription tier.