Netflix says it will increase its prices for subscribers sharing their password with others to reverse a decline in users.
In an effort to boost numbers and cut down on password sharing, the streaming service has announced it will be further rolling out a testing feature which charges account sharers a higher price.
The new feature allows “sub-accounts” to be added which each have their own profile and recommendations, as well as a unique login and password – for a price.
Netflix says this will set the users up to become full members in the future if they so choose.
It was introduced in Chile, Peru and Costa Rica in March and now it has been confirmed more locations will be added in the next year.
Greg Peters, chief product officer, said: “Frankly, we’ve been working on this for about almost two years… a little over a year ago, we started doing some light test launches that…informed our thinking and helped us build the mechanisms that we’re deploying now.
“We just did the first big country tests, but it will take a while to work this out and to get that balance right.”
Price rises for Netflix users sharing their password
The extra cost of the updated service has not been established for each country, but in Costa Rica it comes at additional cost of $2.99 – around £2.29.
Netflix recently announced an increase in its monthly prices in the UK which will only rise further if the “sub-account” feature is introduced here.
Its basic and standard plans will increase by £1 a month to £6.99 and £10.99, while the premium tier will go up by £2 to £15.99 from May 12 for UK and Ireland subscribers
Yesterday, data analysts Kantar revealed that more than 1.5million services have been stopped in the first quarter of 2022.
Streaming services, including Netflix and Amazon Prime, have been cancelled by households amid rising costs of living.
Netflix has predicted it will lose a further 2million subscribers over the next few months.
