The time-honoured tradition of sponging off your friend’s Netflix account has finally met its end.
From Wednesday, Netflix began notifying Australian and international subscribers that only one household can access an account.
Any subscribers who are particularly generous can still choose to pay an additional $7.99 a month to share their account with someone who doesn’t live with them.
But that won’t be available for those who pay for Netflix through a partner company as part of a bundle of services.
Wednesday’s crackdown follows Netflix telling shareholders in April that widespread account sharing – involving more than 100 million households – was undermining its ability to invest in and improve its streaming service and its business.
The company noted previous launches of its “paid sharing” initiative in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal had strengthened its confidence that locking accounts to individual households was the right move.
While such a crackdown usually sparked a “cancel reaction”, Netflix noted subscriber numbers and revenue eventually increased as former account piggy- backers started to activate their own accounts and existing members add “extra member” accounts.
This may have contributed to the 1.75 million growth in Netflix subscriptions in the first quarter of 2023, a significant turnaround from the loss of almost 1 million in the second quarter of 2022.
But the crackdown on password-sharing comes amid the ongoing cost-of-living crunch, which is driving Australians to cut down on luxuries such as streaming services; Netflix has already been named as the streaming service people would cancel first, followed by Optus Sport and Disney+.
Making the transition
The change is likely to become apparent quickly. The next time Australian users log into their Netflix account, they will be asked to identify its primary household. The company will detect whether a viewer is part of that household using IP addresses and checking that devices such as smartphones or iPads are connected to the same internet network.
Those who want to watch Netflix while travelling still can – but they must open the app from their home address at least once a month.
