Netflix to start charging you for password sharing in 'months' with steep extra fee

dailystar.co.uk:

Netflix password to your partner, gran, or yoga instructor?Well, bad news: Netflix is onto you, and could start charging you an extra fee for it as soon as next year.The streaming giant has reportedly said it plans to add extra fees for those who share their passwords with friends and family, in a bid to crack down on account sharing. READ NEXT: Does Apple have a Black Friday sale - and when is the best time to bag a deal? The announcement follows the launch of a cheaper, ad-supported tier for Netflix which sees people pay a lower monthly subscription in exchange for watching ads.

In a letter to shareholders, Netflix said: "We've landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we'll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023."After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create subaccounts ("extra member") if they want to pay for family and friends."The move follows trials in Latin America which saw Netflix charge subscribers to pay an extra $2.99 (£2.66) per extra household streaming Netflix.

Netflix execs previously estimated that around 100 million households were using its streaming platform without paying. Proposals for an account sharing charge were first floated earlier this year when Netflix reported its first subscriber loss in more than 10 years.The company's CEO Reed Hastings said in April: "We realized with all of the account sharing, which we've always had—that's not a new thing—but when you add that up together, we're getting pretty high market penetration."And that, combined with the competition, is really what we think.