Netflix to soon roll out paid password sharing

IANS

San Francisco, January 20

Streaming giant Netflix has announced that it will roll out its paid password sharing “more broadly” “later in” the first quarter (Q1) of this year.

“While our terms of use limit use of Netflix to a household, we recognise this is a change for members who share their account more broadly,” the company said in its earnings reports on Thursday.

“As we roll out paid sharing, members in many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with,” it added.

After launching the paid password sharing, the streaming giant expects some “cancel reaction in each market” but it will eventually result in “improved overall revenue.” 

The company also announced that Reed Hastings has stepped down as Netflix’s co-CEO and will now serve as an executive chairman, and Greg Peters has stepped up from COO to become Ted Sarandos’s co-CEO.

Meanwhile, last month, it was reported that Netflix was planning to put an end to its password sharing feature in early 2023.

The company had long been aware that password sharing is a problem that negatively affects its earnings, but the rise in subscriptions in 2020 led the streaming giant to avoid addressing the issue. Because of the revenue downfall last year and the platform’s first subscriber loss in 10 years, Hastings decided that it was time to take action on the issue.

In October last year, the streaming giant had announced the ‘Profile Transfer’ feature to prevent password sharing that had been rolled out to all members globally.