Netflix and the problem of joint accounts

Netflix announce Begin experimenting with new functionality that in selected countries will charge an additional cost for sharing accounts with people outside their families. Sharing in addition to what subscriptions allow is something that Netflix appears willing to oppose, as it, as stated in the recent press release, “affects the ability to invest in new films and TV series.” So the company will be testing two new features with its subscribers in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru in the coming weeks. At the moment, there are no indications that it will be extended elsewhere, but generally the new functionality is being tested locally initially.

We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix accounts, which has features like separate profiles and multiple simultaneous plays on both the Standard and Premium plans. Although they were very successful, they caused some confusion about how to share a Netflix subscription. The result is that the accounts are shared by several families, which affects our ability to invest in new films and TV series.

For this reason, Netflix says, two new functions will be introduced in the three chosen countries to “easily and securely share an account” with people outside the family. The first function provides adding two secondary profiles that people outside of the basic sharing — but only for Standard and Premium subscriptions — can use at a cost of about $3 (in Chile, for a scale, a monthly Netflix membership ranges from the equivalent of $7.50 to $14). ).

The second, which is in fact a complement to the first, will allow Basic, Standard and Premium subscribers using another family unit account to transfer their information to a new profile or to an external paid profile, thus maintaining a watch history, favorites list and personal recommendations.

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