Netflix Starting Crackdown of Account Sharing in US in Coming Months

Netflix won't let its subscribers continue to share accounts for much longer.

Credit: Reuters

Engadget reports the streaming giant in a letter to shareholders said it's planning a "broad rollout" of its paid sharing plan in more markets around the world, including the U.S, in the coming months. "In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results," it wrote. "We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2."

Netflix first rolled out paid account sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain, allowing subscribers residing in those countries to pay an additional fee every month to grant up to two people outside of their household streaming access. The add-on option still allows primary account holders to access Netflix on their mobile devices or TVs outside of their homes, such as in hotels, for example. Secondary account holders, meanwhile, can convert their profiles into new accounts, while keeping all their streaming data.

Prior to rolling out paid account sharing, the company estimated that more than 100 million households were sharing accounts, which supposedly undermined its ability to invest and produce more content for its service.

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The "broad rollout" of paid account sharing came on the same day Netflix announced it's shuttering its original business, DVD rentals. The company said it would be "winding down" the mailing of physical discs via DVD.com, with the last discs being sent out on 29 September, as demand for physical rentals continue to go down. It has shipped over 5.2 billion DVDs to more than 40 million customers since it started the business in 1998.

The decision to shutter this part of the business could perhaps help Netflix cut costs as it looks to bounce back from a disappointing 2022, the year it first saw a drop in subscribers in over a decade. While the savings aren't expected to be big, it could likely still help the company, with its first quarter profits being lower than it was the previous year.

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• Netflix in a letter to shareholders said it's planning a "broad rollout" of its paid sharing plan in more markets around the world, including the U.S, in the coming months.

• The streaming giant first rolled out paid account sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain in the first quarter of the year.

• The "broad rollout" of paid account sharing came on the same day Netflix announced it's shuttering its original business, DVD rentals.