Netflix: the countries where it will start charging for shared accounts

The new modality will be from August 22.

Netflix: The Countries Where It Will Start Charging For Shared Accounts

The streaming service giant Netflix announced that as of August 22 it will test its new modality in some countries where it has operations. In this way, you will start charging additional fees to users who log in from outside the home.

The company announced a test last March that would charge an additional amount to the subscription price for sharing the account with people who live outside the home and use a shared profile.

The decision was made after noticing that the practice of sharing accounts was affecting the number of subscriptions and, therefore, the company’s income. In this sense, Netflix reported that the new modality will initially work in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.

In this way, the company will charge a fee of 1.69 dollars (about 7,500 Colombian pesos, approximately), to subscribers who have the same account opened in different households.

Although the first phase does not involve Colombia, it is not ruled out that the additional payment method for sharing passwords will be extended to other countries.

Netflix Homes

Netflix recently said it plans to test a new system called Netflix Homes, which will require users to pay an additional fee if they use an account on a device connected to a TV outside the home.

“As of August 22, 2022, to use your Netflix account in additional homes, we will ask you if you want to add a home for an additional fee per month ”, can be read in the Help Center in the section that corresponds to Honduras , one of the countries where the test will be carried out, along with Argentina.

With this, it has clarified that, in the countries where Netflix Homes works, it will not charge additional costs to users who view content from laptops or mobile phones “while traveling” .

However, the policy changes when the device from which the content of the platform is viewed is a television. In this case, the company has reported that users will be able to either connect to Netflix from these computers or establish a connection from a mobile phone to a television for a maximum of two weeks.

Cheap subscriptions with ads

One particularity that Netflix has, like other streaming platforms, is that it allows you to view content without commercial breaks –as is the case with YouTube or the free version of Spotify–. However, the company announced a cheaper subscription modality that includes ads.

With this strategy, the company aims to recover, since in recent months it has suffered a notable loss of subscribers. Consequently, Netflix plans to introduce this cheaper plan in early 2023, as reflected in the forecasts of its results report. And it will first reach a small group of markets where there is significant ad spend.

For now, the company has not revealed rates, but the plan with ads means a cheaper value for subscribers.

An attempt to continue leading the market

Netflix announced the arrival of advertising to its service, which it intends to seek help to finance the necessary investments that maintain its position as leader in the industry.

Speaking to CNN Business , Andrew Hare, senior vice president of research at Magid, said that “there will be hell to pay if they report a figure significantly higher than the 2 million loss being handled. Once Netflix is ​​severely undervalued by the market, all bets are off."

“Investors will give them time to right the ship, but they need to hear stronger plans on the path to immediate growth. It’s about communicating how the business is evolving to ensure they continue to win in streaming . Nobody has the stomach for a business that loses millions of subscribers every quarter,” added Hare.

Microsoft will be the one that will manage the technology for the sale of advertising space in Netflix, which wants to offer less expensive subscriptions, but including ads. The decision follows a disappointing first quarter in which they lost around 200,000 subscribers for the first time in 10 years, and comes after several years of resisting the idea of ​​advertising.