Netflix to roll out password-sharing crackdown globally next year

Popular streaming platform Netflix has announced that it is planning to crack down on password sharing beginning in 2023.

According to a report by The Verge, Netflix has plans to start allowing subscribers to create sub-accounts next year as part of its "monetising account sharing" strategy.

Recently, Netflix 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.

To address this, Netflix gradually began weaning users away from exchanging passwords, the report said.

It conducted tests in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru, where the streaming platform prompted users to pay extra if someone used their subscription outside of their household when the subscription was owned by them.

Nteflix announced last week that it is rolling out its $6.99 per month ad-supported tier, called "Basic", on November 3 in the US, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the UK, the report added.

Moreover, Netflix partnered with Microsoft to serve ads to users that will last anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds.