The belt tightening continues over at Netflix with the introduction of a password sharing fee from next year.
In addition to raising prices and selling ads in the service’s newly-introduced pleb tier subscription level – walking back on CEO Reed Hasting’s previous statement that they’d never sell ads – the streaming giant has officially confirmed it’s following through with the crackdown of freeloaders.
At this stage, the price of said fee has yet to be specified/determined. But according to CNET, the scheme has already been piloted in a handful of Latin American countries, which charged each extra user roughly one-quarter the price of a standard Netflix plan.
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Assuming they stick to this model, that means Australians will be required to pony up another $4.25 for every additional person binging the goods on their account (the price of a standard subscription currently set at $16.99).
To make the transition from sharing the love to paying for the privilege a little easier, Netflix is also launching launched a profile transfer feature, allowing those who decide to pay for their own account from here on out to export their watch history, recommendations, and so forth to a new independent account.
Up until recently, Netflix approached password sharing like that cool parent in high school who preferred you underage drank under their roof as opposed to some empty field somewhere. Sadly, the party is coming to an end.
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“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” explained Chengyi Long, Netflix Director of Product Innovation.
“While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared.”
“As a result, accounts are being shared between households — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”
Just how much more will the crimson N be able to “invest” in fresh content?
According to estimates generated by Cowen & Co analysts, Netflix could collect US$1.6 billion / AU$2.5 billion – or about 4% upside to the firm’s 2023 revenue projection of US$38.8 billion/ AU$62 billion, notes Variety.
“We think Netflix’s recent efforts reflect a natural progression across more mature markets, and could add incremental subs and [revenue] if the test is rolled out globally,” said the Cowen & Co team, led by senior research analyst John Blackledge.
In other words, we’re looking at a different kind of money heist.
