Netflix users: It now costs more to share a password than it does to get your own
By Netflix password sharing crackdown paid sharing has arrived in the U.S. Now, to share an account with a member outside your family, you have to pay an additional $7.99 per month.
Alternatively, the borrower can transfer their profile to a completely new account (for a fee). This option might make sense for some, as Netflix’s “Standard with Ads” plan costs $6.99 a month. Check out some ads, save a buck. However, there are some disadvantages beyond the commercials.
“Some” (Netflix words) movies and TV shows are not available in the “Standard with Ads” plan. Also, users cannot download content to their devices. Full HD is supported, and the cheaper tier doesn’t limit mobile gaming, which is still quite nascent for Netflix. You can’t share a “Standard with Ads” plan, not that it would make sense to choose to anyway.
Sharing a Standard plan would allow one (one) borrower to go ad-free and download on two supported devices. The tier also includes all movies and shows; it costs $15.49 before the sharing fee.
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Planning to go HAM on Netflix? Then the “Premium” plan might be right for you. For $19.99 a month, you can watch on four devices at a time in Ultra HD and Netflix spatial audio and download on up to six devices. You have the option to add up to two extra members here, while subscribers can only add one on the Standard plan. Regardless of plan, extra members cost $7.99 each.
There’s an in-between plan here: Netflix Basic at $9.99 a month. You cannot share on this plan and are limited to watching (and downloading) on one device at a time. Basic only has basic HD, although there are no limitations on shows and movies.
We knew the crackdown would come this quarter, but not exactly when. The $7.99 fee was the expected price as it was what was previously implemented in Canada (in CAD, of course, not USD). For Netflix and many other media companies, UCAN (US and Canada) are reported as a single region.
Below is the email Netflix is sending to users in the US, starting Tuesday.
And there’s more…