This week, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said the streaming giant will focus on tackling password sharing next year. He reportedly said that while viewers don’t want to see price hikes, Netflix will try to find a way to handle the issue so people will “see the value” in the company.
“There are folks who are enjoying Netflix, literally for free today,” Sarandos added, per CNBC. “So, they’re getting a lot of value out of it. I think they’ll be happy to have their own account.”
Netflix estimates that of the 222 million paying homes overall, passwords are getting shared with more than “100 million additional households.” The latter number reportedly includes more than 30 million households across the U.S. and Canada.
The company has also complained that the practice makes it more difficult for them to expand membership in certain markets.
Netflix will consider certain information to help identify whether viewers are part of the same household, such as device IDs, IP addresses and account activity, according to The Dallas Morning News. Those who want to keep sharing an account may have to fork over extra dough.
No specifics have been announced regarding the streaming service’s plan to begin charging password-sharers nationwide.
Still, the push to bill viewers extra for sharing their account has already been rolled out in certain small countries. In such places, monthly receipts saw $2.99 added per extra user, although it isn’t clear just yet what the price will be in the States.
Netflix also went commercial-free for quite a while, but last month, the company launched a $6.99 option with ads, CNBC notes. The effort was made in partnership with Microsoft.
Over time, the streaming service expects to introduce other ad-supported subscription plans.
Sarandos has also acknowledged that the decision to charge for password sharing may not be popular among everyone.
“Consumers aren’t going to love it right out of the gate, but we need to show them why they should see value,” he said, per Deadline.
He added that password sharing went ignored for too long: “We created a product that was not very easy for you to add your kids to and pay for that.”
Newsweek has reached out to Netflix for comment.
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