Netflix’s New Paid Password-Sharing Crackdown Plan Sounds Terrible

Games Netflix’s New Paid Password-Sharing Crackdown Plan Sounds Terrible Paul Tassi Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jul 19, 2022, 08:01am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Stranger Things Netflix Netfli NFLX x continues to pursue multiple types of plans to crackdown on password sharing between accounts for the service, and its new plan sounds no less irritating than the others so far, even if it’s attempting to make some allowances. Netflix, believing they are losing loads of revenue in password sharing, is testing a new concept in some South American countries where you will be allowed to sign in on a TV outside your home for two weeks, but after that, Netflix will block the service unless you pay to add an additional home. That price seems to be around $2.

99 a month on top of what you’re already paying, per household. Netflix detects “homes” using IP addresses, device IDs and account activity. So you’re supposed to make sure everything is on the same network, and also that you’re not using a VPN or something like that to trigger it within a single home.

This new version of the plan with the two week allowance is supposed to allow for use when traveling, which was a frequent complaint about the concept of paying for use outside your home in the past. Detail of a mans hand scrolling through Netflix on an Apple iPad Pro, taken on March 6, 2020. (Photo .

. . [+] by Phil Barker/Future Publishing via Getty Images) Future Publishing via Getty Images MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry It’s not that Netflix is wrong to want more people to subscribe instead of signing up with shared info, it’s that I wonder if this is the best use of the company’s time, resources and goodwill during this somewhat fraught era for them.

Obviously password sharing is not unique to Netflix, or even streaming services as a whole (thanks for the WSJ login info dad!), but you do not see Netflix’s competitors orchestrating grand plans to cut off sharing like Netflix seems determined to make here. The company may of course see some level of conversion if other “households” are added for a few bucks, which is still certainly a better deal than the full $15-20 asking price, but I’ve seen some people saying that philosophically, this doesn’t make a ton of sense. If the idea is that say, a family of six needs to pay $26 to have two of its kids living outside the house be added, why is there no discount for say, a single person living by themselves, who still has to pay the full price of $20 for 4K Netflix even though it’s just one person watching? I mean you wouldn’t expect a discount, as that’s not how these things work, but Netflix sure seems to want to push it the other way.

Netflix is also ignoring what appears to be the main problem it keeps dancing around, that on the whole, it’s much more expensive than most other streaming services when arguably, it isn’t necessarily better than its rivals in terms of its overall quality output. But prices only ever keep going up, and this password sharing crackdown is just another form of that. I just cannot imagine this is going to go terribly well when whatever form of this ends up implemented globally.

We’ll see what happens, but it just doesn’t seem like the best course to pursue at this unsteady time at Netflix. But they seem determined all the same. Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , Facebook and Instagram .

Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls . Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy . Paul Tassi Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.