Last year, Netflix experimented with a new way to crack down on password sharing with an account authorization tool that prevents third-party access to an account. After jacking up its subscription prices in North America, the company is running a new test again to prevent sharing of passwords among none household members.
According to Variety, Netflix is launching a new test in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru that will let account holders who share passwords with people outside their household continue to do so “easily and securely, while also paying a bit more,” according to Chengyi Long, director of product innovation at Netflix. Users in these countries with active Standard or Premium subscriptions will be able to add up to two subsidiary accounts who are not household members in Costa Rica for $2.99 each, 7.9 PEN in Peru, and 2380 CLP in Chile.
Netflix is thinking ahead with the “add an extra member” feature. Not only will the subsidiary accounts have their own profile, personalized recommendations, login and password, they will also be able to transfer their profiles to new accounts if they finally make a decision to do so.
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” Long wrote in a blog post about the test. “While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households — impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”
On if the test will be rolled out to other markets or expanded as a permanent feature, Long wrote “We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world.” Password sharing outside of the household is against Netflix’s Terms of Service and it will be interesting to see how the new experiment works to combat this.