Changes to Netflix’s United States Help Center website this week seemed to suggest that the streaming giant had finally landed on a strategy after spending years testing various approaches to prohibit password sharing. However, those modifications abruptly vanished, creating uncertainty and worry about prospective adjustments to Netflix’s account-sharing policy. The corporation is now making it clear that nothing changed this week and that no additional limits are currently being implemented.
“For a brief time Tuesday, a Help Center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru went live in other countries. We have since updated it,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement.
The firm stated on its most recent earnings call that it will announce and start rolling out account-sharing adjustments globally in the first quarters of 2023, thus the death knell for password sharing is still ringing.
Netflix spokesperson Kumiko Hidaka said in a statement given to The Streamable and The Verge that “For a brief time on Tuesday, a help center article containing information that is only applicable to Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, went live in other countries. We have since updated it.”
In its report, The Streamable cites this Netflix help center page as the source for its information. However, the information included in the article for US customers — and visible on an Internet Archive page captured yesterday — doesn’t match what is listed today. Right now, that information is only available on the pages for the Central and South American test countries.
Hidaka explained in an emailed statement to The Verge that the text seen is applicable where Netflix rolled out its “Extra Member” offering in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru in March, but not in the US or other countries where that isn’t available. As far as what else is confirmed so far, she pointed to Netflix’s earnings statement from January, saying that “Later in Q1, we expect to start rolling out paid sharing more broadly.”
The rules on the archived page (and pages for the Extra Member-enabled countries) state that only the people located in your primary household can use a single Netflix subscription. In order for multiple devices to use a single subscription, Netflix says you must “connect to the Wi-Fi at your primary location, open the Netflix app or website, and watch something at least once every 31 days” on the devices you and your household members use to watch Netflix, to stop device blocks on “trusted devices” that you can use anywhere.
The trial requires users to link their viewing devices, such as a TV, smartphone, or tablet, to the wifi in their home, open the Netflix app, and use the streaming service at least once every 31 days in order to ensure that a Netflix account is not being shared outside of the household where it is registered.
Netflix has not yet revealed how it intends to deal with account sharing globally, but the trial offers the best glimpse of what such a strategy may entail.
Account sharing “undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve Netflix,” according to Netflix, which has 230 million users globally. It claimed that more than 100 million households share accounts.
