News JVTech End of shared accounts: that’s it, Netflix is attacking Europe, France soon concerned?
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The reactions regarding Netflix’s desire to end account sharing have been very violent in recent weeks. However, Netflix persists and signs, and the account restriction lands concretely in Europe.
It’s no surprise to anyone, Netflix loses money with account sharing : this amounts to millions of dollars worldwide. For years of unchallenged growth, the situation was tolerated by the platform, but today the situation is very different: despite a record number of subscribers — more than 230 million worldwide — Netflix is struggling to grow its revenue. So you have to get tough.
Even Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix and CEO of the company for more than 25 years, couldn’t fight any longer to keep account sharing tolerated. He decided to step down in January, and the timing speaks volumes.
The days of sharing accounts with friends have been numbered at Netflix for quite a while and until then, one big question remained: when the first restrictions were really going to fall? The answer is simple: it just started.
End of Netflix account sharing: Spain and Portugal are the first European countries targeted
In a blog post published on its US site on Wednesday February 8, Netflix announces the first countries that are already affected by this limitation of account sharing: Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. It is surprising that the United States is not part of it: obviously, Netflix has decided to preserve its strongest market for some time yet.
However, with the arrival of Portugal and Spain in the list, Europe is therefore now concerned. From now on, to share your Netflix account with someone who does not live in the main household, you have to pay 5.99 euros more in Spain, and 3.99 euros more in Portugal. In both cases, the sum is important: in Spain, it is even as high as the price of a Netflix Essential account with advertising.
Paid and limited account sharing
Another subtlety of this announcement: we learn that account sharing is not unlimited, far from it. Already, it is not available from a Netflix Essential or Netflix Essential with ads account. For a Netflix Standard account, it is possible to share the account with only one person outside the householdand for a Netflix Premium account, it is possible to share it with two people maximum.
Netflix also explains that “Members can still easily watch Netflix on their personal devices or connect to a new TV, like in a hotel or vacation rental”a communication intended to reassure those who feared that they could not always prove that they had legitimate access to their account. The platform takes the opportunity to remind you of the existence of profile transfer, to facilitate the creation of a new account… paying, of course.
France soon concerned?
In the immediate future, Netflix has not yet provided any information regarding the arrival of these restrictions on other territories.. One thing is certain, this is only the beginning of the deployment of this new system. “A Netflix account is for a household and members can choose from a range of packages with different features. As always, we’ll be refining these new features based on member feedback to continue improving Netflix for years to come.”concludes the platform.
