Is Netflix Charging for Sharing? Customers Furious Over New Account Rules

It has been said that there are two types of people—people who pay for the Netflix account and people who share it. So, this week, when the streamer announced changes to the way people share accounts, customers expressed outrage.

Reports and rumors that Netflix was planning to crack down on account sharing have been circulating since April, when the company reported a drop in subscribers.

On Thursday, as news of the changes began to spread, Google searches for "Netflix cost per month" and "How much is Netflix per month" soared. Many people are also asking the search engine: "Is Netflix charging for sharing?"

So, Is Netflix Charging For Account Sharing?

A spokesperson for Netflix told Newsweek on Thursday: "We have never charged for profiles and have no plans to do so. Each Netflix account comes with five profiles at no extra cost— this is not changing. Any reports of that are completely untrue."

However, the spokesperson added: "A Netflix account is intended for people who live in the same place—a single household. People who do not live in your household will need to use their own account to watch Netflix."

A shareholder's letter released on October 18 said the company had "landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we'll begin rolling this
out more broadly starting in early 2023."

The strategy has two strands:

• Sub-accounts for subscribers, who will pay extra if they want to share their account with another household
• Profile transfers, which does away with a frequent complaint of sharers—that they will lose their viewing history, lists and recommendations if they have to get their own account.

The shareholder's letter added: "We are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts ('extra member'), if they want to pay for family or friends."

It is not yet known how much Netflix will charge each month for "extra member" sub-accounts.

The idea was branded "bulls****" by one Twitter user, who wrote: "My parents have had a Netflix subscription for them, me and my siblings. It's a family account. We don't all live together anymore. How are you gonna tell us we can't watch Netflix on our own account?"

Under the new approach, the siblings in this family would be expected to transfer their profiles to new accounts, each paying their own fee, or become "extra members" on their parents' plan, which costs extra too.

'Cancel Netflix and Chill'

Plenty of other Twitter users expressed anger at the plan. "Netflix is about to lose a lot of paying customers," wrote one.

Another posted: "The day they charge me for letting my Netflix account be used at another address is the day I stop subscribing."

The streamer is also launching a $6.99 ad-supported subscription. Netflix Basic will show 4-5 minutes of commercials every hour, and shows and movies will stream in 720p resolution.

The shareholder letter said: "In countries with our lower-priced ad-supported plan, we expect the profile transfer option for borrowers to be especially popular."

On Twitter, it appeared that customers were not convinced. One wrote: "I will cancel Netflix forever if they do this. It's already overpriced. Not another dime."

Another posted simply: "Cancel Netflix and chill."