'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
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
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.
netflix making
— shannon (eras tour 5/20 and 5/27! ✨) (@holygroundsound) May 23, 2023
divorced families, elderly grandparents, college kids who live far away from home etc. pay extra for "password sharing" when they refuse to pay their writers fair royalties is absolutely ridiculous. where do you get off thinking people will be cool with this!
I've been a @netflix member since probably 2010. I never cancelled it, even with the price hikes. But I think this password sharing crackdown plan is the last straw. Not even with your family members? What was the point of profiles then? ?
— Miguel E. (@miguemonteropr) May 23, 2023
I've had @netflix on auto pay for years and didn't think about changing that even with a drop off in quality, but the password sharing business they're up to has me reconsidering this. Pretty tough trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube and I don't even share my password
— Andy Czekalski (@Czekalski17) May 24, 2023
If @netflix wants to backtrack on password sharing because their own long-held policies caused a dip in profits, and limit it to "under one roof" then everyone on a dorm, nursing home, or apartment complex should share because that's #stupid!#facepalm #idiots
— LE (@eGrant03) May 24, 2023
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.
