After deliberating on ways to address account sharing, Netflix has unveiled an “add a home” feature, allowing users outside the account holder's household to stream Netflix content – for a price.
Starting next month, Netflix subscribers in select Latin American countries will be able to purchase up to a certain number of additional homes, depending on the subscription tier. Those on the basic plan can add one extra home, standard plan users can have up to two extra homes, while premium plan subscribers can have access in up to three additional homes.
This new feature will be available to Netflix users in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Argentinian customers can pay $1.70 per month (219 pesos) to add an extra home, while subscribers in the other countries pay a monthly fee of $2.99.
Latin America is also where Netflix initially tested price increases to crack down on password sharing. Netflix members in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru were prompted to add extra users for people watching outside the account holder’s household – a feature that received some backlash.
Additionally, the “add a home” function permits viewers to watch content on mobile devices, while they’re not at home. Account holders can also see where their Netflix account is being used and have the option to remove extra homes at any time.
According to a support page for Netflix in Honduras, users can watch Netflix on a TV outside their home for up to two weeks, provided the account has not been previously used in that location. Subscribers can take advantage of this feature once per year for each location.
As for determining what classifies as a home, Netflix said it uses information like IP addresses, device IDs and account activity.
Netflix further emphasized the issue of password sharing after losing 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter. On its earnings call in April, the streamer pointed out the impact of account sharing was obscured by growth during Covid.
Netflix estimated the service is being shared with over 100 million additional subscribers, in addition to the 222 million paying households.
But there is concern that paying for password sharing could subsequently cause more subscriber churn. A May study from Aluma Insights suggested if Netflix charged $3 per month for additional out-of-home users, 13% of U.S. Netflix subscribers would likely cancel the service.
Other streaming services have also considered ways to curb account sharing. Just before WarnerMedia and Discovery officially merged into Warner Bros. Discovery, AT&T CEO John Stankey mentioned HBO Max has some technical capabilities to limit what he called “rampant abuse” of the platform.
Alongside Netflix’s campaign to limit password sharing, the streamer is planning to raise revenue by implementing a lower cost ad-supported tier, which could be launched by year-end. To ease its entry into the ad-supported streaming market, Netflix last week tapped Microsoft to serve as its global ad sales partner.