Netflix remains determined to modify the current system by which many users share their account with family or friends. The latest test has to do with charging an extra amount on the subscription for those who use it in different homes.
Netflix has almost always insisted that the option to share the account was confined to different users of the same domicile
The purpose of Netflix is that if the same account is used at the same time from different locations on a fixed basis users pay an additional amount. This modality will begin to be tested over the next month in some South American countries (Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Dominican Republic).
Users will have to determine a location as “principal place of business” which can be accessed from any of the devices where the application is installed and for any of the users registered in the account. Only when the user is outside this main address will an additional fee be charged.
But not everything is so rigid or so simple. Depending on the subscription plan chosen Netflix authorizes the establishment of more than one address, but with limits:
-Netflix Basic plan: A single additional home can be added (total of two).
-Netflix Standard Plan: Two additional addresses can be added (total of three).
-Netflix Premium Plan: Three additional addresses can be added (total of four).
Account administrators have the ability to manage the various registered addresses, as well as the power to delete or add others within the limits set for each plan.
Earlier this year Netflix already introduced in some Latin American countries (Chile, Costa Rica or Peru) a similar test option called “add an extra memberthe addition of two “sub-accounts” still cost less than a stand-alone subscription, so many users still find it cost-effective. The addition of two “sub-accounts” still cost less than a stand-alone subscription, so many users still find it cost-effective.
From Netflix it is explained that to know the location of users are used data from IP addresses of the Internet connection and of the devices connected to it, so that it can be determined when there is what the platform calls “persistent use” outside the home.
Currently, of the 200 million user accounts registered with Netflix the platform estimates that about half, about 100 million, share their accounts with other users of the same subscription.