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The streaming service reportedly expects a torrent of complaints from angry Brits when the new rules arrive
Time is about to run out for Brits who borrow Netflix from friends and family.
Later this month, Netflix is expected to expand its password-sharing clampdown to the UK.
The streaming service will start warning Brits who allow others to access their accounts to immediately stop, or move to its new “paid sharing accounts. UK customers can expect to see the warnings in the form of emails and alerts on Netflix in the coming weeks.
Netflix has briefed the country’s biggest telecoms providers on its plans to end free use of its platform, according to the Financial Times. The likes of BT, Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk offer Netflix subscriptions to customers as part of bundled deals on broadband and TV contracts.
Netflix is reportedly expecting a wave of complaints from angry Brits upon implementation of the new rules.
How does Netflix’s password-sharing clampdown work?
Under the new regime, you are allowed to stream Netflix from only one location. While it is flexible enough to let you use your account in a hotel while on holiday, or on your phone, extended use in homes other than your own will be blocked.
Devices need to be connected to your home Wi-Fi once a month to be verified, causing potential headaches for those who travel a lot.
You are then able to buy an add-on to allow up to two extra people to access your account, for people who live elsewhere. This costs $8 in Canada, €4 in Portugal and €6 in Spain, suggesting people in the UK may end up paying an additional £5 to allow continued use somewhere outside their home.
Earlier this year, Netflix’s website appeared to suggest these rules would be introduced worldwide by late March. However, it then claimed such information was meant for only “Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru”, where the account-sharing measures were initially trialled.
When will Netflix stop password sharing?
The company previously revealed plans to roll out the policy worldwide in the summer.
“That launch we are doing in Q2 is a very broad launch, it includes the United States, includes many, many other countries,” said Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on the firm’s first-quarter earnings call in April. “But I would say the bulk of our countries and certainly, when you think about it from a revenue perspective, the vast majority will be rolling out in Q2.”
Last year, Netflix introduced paid-sharing tests in three Latin American countries. In February, it extended its measures designed to put an end to password sharing to four new countries, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain.
Peters said Netflix was taking some “extra time” to expand the rules to more markets.
“We felt based on those results … it was better to incorporate those learnings and make this transition as smooth as possible as we can for members and we think that approach also best serves the long-term business goals as well,” he said.
How many people share Netflix passwords?
Netflix claimed in 2022 that more than 100 million households worldwide use the video-streaming service without paying, by using a shared account.
Tackling password sharing is Netflix’s strategy to reinvigorate the service’s growth. This was fantastic at the start of the Covid pandemic, but has all but flatlined. Analysts from Ampere Analysis have predicted Netflix would lose 200,000 UK subscribers in 2023.
Netflix addressed this slowed growth in a letter to its shareholders early in 2022. “Account sharing as a percentage of our paying membership hasn’t changed much over the years but, coupled with [slow broadband and connected TV adoption], means it’s harder to grow membership in many markets – an issue that was obscured by our Covid growth,” the letter said.
“That launch we are doing in Q2 is a very broad launch, it includes the United States, includes many, many other countries,” said Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters on the company’s first quarter earnings call in April. “But I would say the bulk of our countries and certainly, when you think about it from a revenue perspective, the vast majority will be rolling out in Q2.”
