Netflix Is About to Get Worse for All U.S. Customers

If you’ve been following news, it’s no secret that Netflix has been rolling out ways to stop the rampant password sharing that plagues the service – how dare customers do this?! Think about the massive corporation!

Now it’s coming to the U.S., so… get your cancel buttons ready.

In the company’s Q1 2023 earnings report, Netflix shares their forecast for what they call “paid sharing”:

In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results. We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2.

Netflix earnings report

First rolled out back in August 2022 in certain countries, Netflix’s new account sharing policy is restricted to certain plans, and if someone outside of your included membership allowance wants to use your account, everyone gets to “enjoy” some additional fees! Cool! (Not actually cool.)

On paper, the idea is solid. Netflix wants to cut down on account usage throughout multiple households, ya know, like “family-wide” accounts; however, in practice this “paid sharing” plan is causing more trouble for everyday users. Users who travel constantly, or even have multiple homes for vacation or otherwise are treated to additional fees, prompting dissatisfaction and account cancellation.

Netflix isn’t about to start caring, because as the Q1 earnings report shows revenue is substantially up along with an increasing Netflix membership base.

In regards to usability, under the “paid sharing” rollout Netflix subscribers must designate a primary location. If a user attempts to use the service from a different location, they will be unable to do so using that account.

However, Netflix does allow for occasional exceptions such as traveling or having a second home. In such cases, Netflix requires users to log in to the Netflix app from their primary location at least once per month, which alleviates some of the constraints but is still so… bleh.

So, if you’re currently affected by the the recent changes to Netflix or are about to be – consider letting your wallet decide, as if the recent content releases haven’t been enough to get you to cancel yet…

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