Netflix Adds An Extra Home Fee
Instead of lowering the monthly payment for the service, Netflix is beginning to roll out a new "home fee" for households that share an account.
This article is more than 2 years old
Netflix has steadily been losing subscribers at an alarming rate. The spring quarterly earnings report this year claimed that 200,000 subscribers had dropped, with another 1 million being added to that number in the more recent earnings report. This has led to a ton of trouble for the streaming giant, including cutting out plenty of upcoming shows. The company has also claimed that a lot of the dropped numbers in subscribers have to do with account sharing, which is something the company is trying to fix. It has been announced that a new “home fee” is being tested out in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Guatemala. This fee charges an additional $2.99 a month for people in different households using the same account.
Netflix seems to be trying to fix its monetary woes by adding more fees to those who own an account but lend that account out to friends and family members. However, the issue that most people have with the streaming giant is the price in general. Netflix has ballooned to $15.49 a month for the HD option and $19.99 a month for the UHD option of their streaming services. To put that in perspective, Apple TV and Paramount+ cost as much as Netflix does a month. That is two streaming services for the price of one. This new “home fee” is not going to make things easier for the once great platform.
Netflix claims that it will do what it can to properly roll out these new “home fees” as part of a new plan option. The password and account sharing days are apparently gone, and now family members will likely have to split the price of sharing just one account. Another way that the streaming giant is going to rectify its current hefty prices is by offering an ad-based option that is going to be relatively cheaper. We are not entirely sure how much cheaper it will be, but customers might want to go for that option if they are trying to save some money. A caveat to this option is the entire catalog might not be available. Netflix will have to secure an agreement with studios that might not want to budge on having ads play during their shows or films.
Netflix is starting these new “home fee” charges on August 22nd in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Apparently, they are testing the success or failure of this new option in international countries before bringing it over to the United States. The streaming company hasn’t had the most success in determining these factors, as the password sharing crackdown was a complete mess when the company tried to define parameters of what a “household” means.
Whatever happens, Netflix had better figure out the best course of action soon, as the company is currently dropping subscribers quickly. They had been projected to lose 2 million subscribers, but the nearly 1 million number lost turned out to be the company’s saving grace. Adding more fees to an already expensive monthly payment is something we don’t foresee working out at all.
