Netflix Inc. is assessing a feature that will allow account holders to share their membership beyond a members’ household for an extra fee, the streaming giant announced on its blog Wednesday (March 16).
Chengyi Long, director of product innovation, wrote that while Netflix has always made it easy for people who live in the same house to share their account, there’s confusion about when and how the service can be shared.
As a result, she wrote, accounts are being shared outside of member’s households, hurting the company’s bottom line and its ability to invest in movies and TV.
Over the last year, Netflix has been considering ways to allow members who share their username and password outside their household to do so easily and securely. But it comes with an extra charge.
Long said Netflix plans to test the features for users in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
Members on the Standard and Premium plans can add up to two people who live elsewhere, each with their own profile, personal recommendations, login and password at a lower price: 2,380 Chilean peso ($2.98) , $2.99 in Costa Rica and 7.9 Peruvian sol ($2.12).
“We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films,” Long wrote. “We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world.”
Earlier this month, Netflix announced it will acquire Finnish mobile games maker Next Games.
Read more: Netflix to Acquire Finland’s Next Games
“Since I joined Netflix last summer, our vision for games, to build a library of great games for our members to enjoy, has always been clear and simple,” wrote Mike Verdu, the company’s vice president for games. “But to get there is no simple feat; it takes time to develop games that people love.”
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