Netflix is also not the only streaming service to go in this direction. Hulu + Live TV has taken similar measures. It also looks like Netflix may start charging users for sharing an account outside of a household, an idea the company tested in March 2022 in South America and has since implemented in countries there. Users in the online community expressed confusion and frustration by Netflix’s update. Some have said that this inches them closer to canceling their already costly Netflix service, as traveling and using Netflix will be unnecessarily tedious, not to mention having to log in at home at least once a month. The move may result in more users migrating to other streaming platforms.
How Netflix Will Approve ‘Household’ Devices
The steps are as follows:
Netflix sends a link that goes to a page with a 4-digit verification code to the primary account owner via email or phone number. This code must be entered on the device it requested it from within 15 minutes; otherwise, a new code must be requested. The user can now access Netflix.
Plenty of Account-Sharing Headaches on Horizon
A Leichtman Research Group study based on 4,400 households in the U.S. said 64 percent of those with Netflix that pay for the service do not share it outside the household. However, the study reported that 33 percent of Netflix services are used in more than one household. This means 15 percent of Netflix services are shared by the primary account owner with others, while another 15 percent are borrowed from a different household that is paying for the service. The remaining 3 percent of Netflix services are not paid for “because they come with another service.” “For example, about two-thirds of U.S. household report having Netflix, but this includes about 10% of U.S. households that don’t pay for the service because it is borrowed from someone else’s subscription,” the president of Leichtman Research Group, Inc. said.
Travelers Will Need to Verify Their Devices
This news has upset people in the online community concerned that they will be cut off from Netflix access since they may not be using the internet connection to which their Netflix primary accounts are tied. This can affect everyone from university students to people simply traveling for work, or moving to and from homes in different areas. For Netflix, this has to happen because account sharing impacts their “ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members,” the company said in 2022.
Using Netflix Away from Home WiFi
Currently, sharing Netflix outside of the primary household will be available only to Standard and Premium plan members in the form of simultaneous device connections — two for the $15.49 per month Standard Plan, and four for the $19.99 Premium Plan. Any user outside the home Wi-Fi network would have to be verified periodically. According to a news release by Netflix in March 2022, the idea of sub-accounts for up to two people who do not “live” with the primary account owner was tested in South America. Sub-accounts in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru could be created for the equivalent of about $3 USD each, where each gets its own profile, recommendations, login, and password. This was not included in Netflix Basic. It is unclear exactly how Netflix will enforce these changes. Whether that means monitoring users’ unique device MAC addresses, their IP, or other device identifiers is up in the air. In a letter to Netflix shareholders, the company was confident that restrictions would force more people to get accounts and make the company more profitable. “From our experience in Latin America, we expect some cancel reaction in each market when we roll out paid sharing, which impacts near-term member growth. But as borrower households begin to activate their own standalone accounts and extra member accounts are added, we expect to see improved overall revenue, which is our goal with all plan and pricing changes,” the letter said.
Users Already Looking for Ways to Bypass Netflix Restrictions
Because your house has one public IP assigned to the router, it is easy to track. Thus, companies can force you to log in from that IP periodically. This means you can travel and even use mobile data to stream, but that may only last a month before you have to verify the app by connecting to your home WiFi where the primary account is registered. Users are already looking for ways to bypass streaming restrictions like this, with the Raspberry Pi low-cost microcomputer offering a possible solution to the problem. Whether this will work with Netflix remains to be seen. In our article on saving money on your Netflix subscription, we mentioned that Netflix announced it would roll out stricter controls for password sharing this year. How that will happen exactly is not yet known on a global level. For the time being, you can still find out how to access the full U.S. Netflix catalog from anywhere with a VPN in our step-by-step guide.
