The popular streaming service, Netflix, intends to end password sharing next year, and the drastic initiative will likely affect 100 million viewers worldwide.
Every Pakistani has only one or two friends in their social circle who are rich enough to afford a Netflix subscription, which is shared not just with the person’s household, but with their relatives, friends, and their friends’ friends. However, Netflix has had enough and planning to put a stop to it.
Netflix will now only allow people living in the same household to have an account together.
Reed Hastings, the co-CEO of the company, told executives at a company meeting that password sharing had been going on for too long and the pandemic was only masking how seriously it was affecting Netflix’s revenue.
However, this is ironic, coming from a company that tweeted “love is sharing a password” in 2017.
Love is sharing a password.
— Netflix (@netflix) March 10, 2017
At least 100 million password-borrowers now face losing their favorite shows and movies but sources state that the company will cautiously ban the use of the password to prevent online backlash.
It is unclear what the exact policy will look like and how it will be implemented. Nonetheless, the company expects to use IP addresses for password sharing and to shut it down unless consumers pay an additional fee.
Note that Netflix, with 223 million global subscribers, will be the first company to ban password sharing, but media executives doubt that they’ll be the last.
Netflix and its consumers might encounter a problem when someone is on the move and trying to use an original account. According to reports, Netflix has considered allowing customers to notify it about their geographic changes. This is similar to what people do with credit cards.
The popular streaming service has not yet announced that it will reduce password sharing nor set a price for adding additional households to its account.
