Netflix launching huge crackdown on shared accounts

Testing has successfully forced people using borrowed passwords to get tier own, company says

(AFP via Getty Images)

Netflix is to roll out its major crackdown on shared accounts and passwords.

The company has long been threatening, and testing, new features that aim to spot when people are sharing accounts outside of a single household, and force them to pay for their own.

It had initially delayed the broad rollout, to give it more time to integrate the findings of that initial testing. But it is now ready and will be rolled out more “broadly” in the coming months, the company said.

It made the announcement during its latest results call, when it also revealed that it would be winding down the DVD business that gave it its start.

Speaking during that call, co-chief executive of Netflix Greg Peters said that the tool had been rolled out in a range of countries already and that it had “gone well”.

While customers initially cancelled their accounts in response to the news, membership and revenue then rose as people paid for their own accounts, he said. That is similar to the behaviour after a price rise, he noted.

That behaviour has happened in a variety of different countries, he said, even though it had been rolled out in places with very different characteristics. The crackdown was initially launched in specific Latin American countries but has gone more widely since.

That same testing showed however that some users were frustrated with specific parts of the testing. Netflix received feedback about “things like having seamless access to Netflix as they have always been using it on the go or while traveling, as well as making sure that we have got good tools for them to manage access to their accounts and their devices”, Mr Peters said.

The new version of the changes incorporates those changes, he said, and so the company will now start rolling it out in other places. That is a “very broad launch, it includes the United States, includes many, many other countries”, he said.

The feature uses technology such as geolocation to spot when users might be sharing accounts. If it thinks they are, it will force them instead to buy their own account – either by starting an entirely new login or taking advantage of other options that let users add other people into an existing account.