If you are used to using your friends' Netflix account then you may need to stop next year as the popular streaming platform in its effort to get freeloading viewers to pay has announced that it will add fees for "extra member" sub-accounts when anyone outside your family uses your membership.
The streaming platform didn't specify the prices for the sub-accounts when it confirmed the plan on Tuesday. But the company is already being tested in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru by charging roughly one-quarter of the standard Netflix plan for each new member.
In addition to the password-sharing fees, Netflix announced last week that it is rolling out a cheaper ad-supported tier called "Basic", on November 3 in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the UK. Earlier this week the company also enabled users to transfer their profiles to new accounts.
Moreover, the company has partnered with Microsoft to serve ads to users that will last anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds.
Recently Netflix in its earnings announced that they gained 2.41 million subscribers in the July-September quarter, bringing the total to 223.09 million globally.
The company said it has grown by 1,04,000 paid subscribers in the US and Canada over the last three months, up from 73,000 in the same period the previous year, and says it remains committed to the "bingeable release model".
Earlier this year, Netflix experienced its first drop in subscribers in over a decade this quarter, as its subscriber count fell by 1.3 million in the US and Canada and 1 million worldwide.
With inputs from IANS
