Netflix squeeze on password sharing boosts sign-ups, data suggests

Netflix’s recent crackdown on password sharing appears to be paying off, according to data from research firm Antenna.

The streaming giant started informing U.S. customers last month that anyone living outside their household who had access to their account would need to be added as an extra user for $8 per month, or get their own subscription.

Since then, Netflix has seen the four single largest days of U.S. sign-ups since January 2019, when Antenna started gathering such data.

On May 26 and 27, just three days after Netflix began notifying U.S. customers of the changes regarding password sharing, the streaming service received almost 100,000 sign-ups on each of those two days.

Meanwhile, during the period from May 25 through May 28, daily sign-ups averaged 73,000, marking a 102% increase from the prior 60-day average.

This was more than the spike in subscriber sign-ups recorded during the initial U.S. COVID-19 lockdowns in March and April 2020 when people were staying in more and turning to streaming services to fill their time, Antenna said.

Netflix cancellations in the U.S. also increased during the May 25-28 period, though sign-ups were greater in number, Antenna said, adding that the ratio of sign-ups to cancellations since May 23 was up 25.6% compared to the previous 60-day period.

Netflix began its quest to convert freeloaders into paying customers in a trial in several Latin American countries last year before expanding it to other countries such as Canada, New Zealand, and Spain, and then to the U.S. last month.

It means that subscribers now have to fork out an extra $8 per month for each user who accesses their account from outside their household. The fee is cheaper than the basic ad-free plan, which costs $10 per month, but more expensive than Netflix’s ad-supported tier, which costs $7 per month.

If a user wants to set up their own personal Netflix account instead of using someone else’s, Netflix has made it easy to migrate their profile and preferences to the new account.

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Netflix loved people sharing passwords. In 2022, it doesn’t.

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“We love people sharing Netflix, whether they’re two people on a couch or 10 people on a couch. That’s a positive thing, not a negative thing.” These were the words of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at the CES show in Las Vegas. That was in 2016. Six years later, Netflix is announcing plans to end password sharing.

Last year, Netflix started testing a prompt system that would ask users to verify their phone number or email, in order to make sure that they live in the same household as the person paying for the subscription. The test was not particularly well-received.

Netflix is testing out new charges for sharing passwords

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If you’ve ever shared your Netflix password with anyone outside of your household, then there’s a high probability that Netflix knows about it. And while Netflix has yet to ban the practice, the streaming service is taking new steps to monetize it. Via Netflix’s official blog, Chengyi Long, the streaming service’s product innovation director, announced that the company is testing out plans to charge an extra fee to accounts that share their passwords.

For now, the options are only being tested in three countries: Costa Rica, Peru, and Chile. The good news is that the early version of the fee comes in at under $3 in all three countries. However, Netflix will evaluate the results before determining whether to raise the fee or if the practice will be brought to America.

In From The Cold heats up Netflix by defying expectations

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The Netflix spy thriller In From The Cold stands out in a crowded genre for plenty of good reasons, not the least of which is its willingness to give audiences a badass, butt-kicking protagonist who also happens to be a single mother in her 40s simply trying to be a good parent to her teenage daughter. At a time when Hollywood’s big-screen spy game often relies on older men and young women free from the shackles of typical adult responsibilities, In From The Cold has lead character Jenny Franklin juggling an angsty teen, a looming divorce, and a nonexistent social life long before her hidden past as a Soviet secret agent comes back to haunt her.

As if that wasn’t enough to handle, she also has a superhuman — but medically risky — ability to shape-shift she’ll need to tap into to stop a terrorist group’s sinister plans, too.