It’s been well documented at this point that Netflix plans to stop free account sharing among people in early 2023, but a support document that appeared on Netflix’s website has now revealed how this could happen.
Whilst Netflix has confirmed to outlets like The Verge that it hasn’t settled on an exact method in parts of the world including the US, in countries such as Chile and Costa Rica, we know that people that want to share their accounts are being charged extra. Netflix uploaded documentation to its help centre earlier today (as noticed by The Streamable) and here’s what it said:
HOW NETFLIX WILL STOP ACCOUNT SHARING
Netflix will determine the “primary location” of your account using your Home’s W-Fi, IP address, Device ID and account activity data and devices that aren’t connected to that network and using that same account will be blocked after 31 days. This means that you’ll also need to be logging into your Netflix account at least once a month to face potentially being locked out.
Obviously this sounds like it’ll have ramifications for those using VPNs (not that you should be) or those that are living in shared accomodation with multiple people using devices in a shared Wi-Fi situation.
It’s said that Netflix will allow you to add extra members to an account for less than what a standalone account costs, so it’ll still be cheaper to have a family type plan than all have individual accounts, but it’s still a massive far cry from what’s currently happening in terms of it being a free-for-all for account sharing.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this rolls out as Netflix has even leaned into account sharing in marketing tactics in the past, but as the streaming platform looks to increase numbers and increase profitability, obviously it has realised that it is reaching the threshold for paying subscribers and needs to get that number up somehow.
We’ll keep you posted when we get information about what this could look like in Australia.
