‘The Last Straw’: Customers Furious as Netflix Begins Charging Accounts for Password Sharing

The announcement is long-anticipated — Netflix has been threatening a crackdown since last year.

By Emily Rella May 24, 2023
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Netflix customers have been up in arms since the streaming giant announced last spring that it would start cracking down on password sharing (via extra fees) in “early 2023.”

In a letter to shareholders last year, the company wrote: “We’ve landed on a thoughtful approach to monetizing account sharing, and we’ll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023.”

Now, Netflix is sharing what these price increases will look like.

Related: All the Details of the Netflix Password-Sharing Update Nobody Wanted

On Tuesday, the company shared a blog post with updated information on account sharing, stating that starting today (Wednesday), members who share their password with people outside of their household will now have to pay $7.99 a month for those additional accounts.

“A Netflix account is for use by one household,” the post said. “Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are — at home, on the go, on holiday — and take advantage of new features like Transfer Profile and Manage Access and Devices.”

Naturally, consumers are less than pleased.

Earlier this year, Netflix warned of new password sharing guidelines ahead of this week’s purge, stating that “people who do not live in your household will need to use their own account to watch Netflix.”

Related: ‘Milking Us For Every Dollar Spent’: Netflix to Charge for Password Sharing Starting Early 2023

The company announced its Q1 2023 earnings last month and waited to roll out the password-sharing crackdown until Q2 after noticing subscriber growth was negatively affected in markets where Netflix was already testing the concept (outside of the U.S.).

The company brought in $8.16 billion in Q1 revenue.

Netflix was up over 1.5% in a 24-hour period upon the announcement of the news.

Netflix customers have been up in arms since the streaming giant announced last spring that it would start cracking down on password sharing (via extra fees) in “early 2023.”

In a letter to shareholders last year, the company wrote: “We’ve landed on a thoughtful approach to monetizing account sharing, and we’ll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023.”

Now, Netflix is sharing what these price increases will look like.

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Emily Rella

Senior News Writer
Emily Rella is a Senior News Writer at Entrepreneur.com. Previously, she was an editor at Verizon Media. Her coverage spans features, business, lifestyle, tech, entertainment, and lifestyle. She is a 2015 graduate of Boston College and a Ridgefield, CT native. Find her on Twitter at @EmilyKRella.

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