Netflix Password Sharing Officially Coming To An End, Here’s When
Netflix is set to end password sharing in early 2023, by adding an extra $3 charge to those who do it.
Netflix has constantly been shuffling its business plan, as 2022 has seen the biggest drop in subscribers for the once industry-leading streaming app. One of those new plans for Netflix is to end password sharing completely, which is set to roll out in the United States early next year. We are not entirely sure what “early” 2023 means, but we would imagine that it means this new big change is going to be implemented in the first quarter of the year between January and the end of March.
Netflix had already begun to experiment with adding an extra charge for different households engaging in password sharing. This experiment took place first in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, and then was implemented in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Essentially, if two different households were using the same password, the house that holds the account would be charged an extra $3 dollar fee a month.
This new charge for those who engage in Netflix password sharing is estimated to generate some $721 million in revenue, which is sorely needed by the company. The company is stated to be rolling out this new initiative gradually. CEO of Netflix, Ted Sarandos, stated that “Make no mistake, I don’t think consumers are going to love it right out of the gate.”
Customers using Netflix and password sharing with one another has been a mainstay for years, simply because the plans for the streaming company have gone up quite significantly in the past few years or so. While the company is losing subscribers by the thousands to competitors, they have tried to stop that by rolling out a new ad-based tier as well. The new tier costs a minimal $6.99 per month but has its own issues.
The Netflix ad-based tier is capped at 720p resolution, and some 10% of the catalog is not available because of licensing issues. Also, only one screen can be streaming at one time. So, if you want to pay less, you are certainly going to be suffering a bit in terms of what is available. Netflix password sharing coming to an end, and this new “cheaper” option might not be what the company needs right now to rebound.
Netflix password sharing might be coming to an end, but this new drastic change could be ignored if the company just thought about lowering its prices. The standard package for the streaming app is currently $15.49 a month. That is a ton in comparison to say AppleTV+, which is only $6.99 per month. AppleTV+ has all its content and high definition available at the same price as the ad-based tier for Netflix.
We are not saying that we know what is best for Netflix, but password sharing should be the least of the worries for the streaming company. We would bet that if they lowered their prices by a couple of dollars a month, it might entice many of those customers who left to return. Also, it could bring more new customers in, as they would likely feel like they are not being ripped off.
