Netflix password sharing crackdown may finally happen in the US: Report

Netflix will begin cracking down this quarter on US viewers who share someone else’s account. According to a Bloomberg report, the company plans to charge such customers would boost growth in the second half of the year. The platform also announced winding down its legacy DVD mailing business. 

The platform recently suffered an outage that impacted over 11,000 users in the US.

Netflix tested ways to reduce account sharing in Latin America and rolled out a plan to charge such users in four additional territories in the first quarter, Bloomberg reported. Netflix lost subscribers in Latin America and added 100,000 customers in the US and Canada.

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The company has also been cutting down on subscription costs in over 30 countries. The company has recently said that it slashed subscription rates in 116 countries following the success of its business model in India.

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Netflix outage in the US impacts over 11,000 users

The platform originally planned to roll out the change in the first quarter of 2023, which is now expected to be available on or before June 30, 2023. However, the move is not only limited to the US. “We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2,” Netflix said in its first-quarter 2023 earnings report. Nevertheless, the crackdown on password sharing would cause some customers to stop accessing the service in a short term. 

According to a Bloomberg report, Netflix estimates that over 100 million individuals use someone’s account, and analysts see paid sharing as a large potential source of new customers or sales. The company will begin charging for password sharing in the US in the next couple of months. 

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