Netflix is expanding its account sharing test. In a number of countries, the streaming service is starting a trial in which subscribers can add additional households. The service uses geolocation to determine when to add a new household.
Netflix is starting the trial in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The streaming service is investigating the possibilities of preventing account sharing. Unlike an earlier test, the test does not revolve around additional paying subaccounts, but households. In the trial, users can take out one subscription per household. That costs about half of the subscription. In Argentina, a Basic subscription costs 429 pesos per month. An extra household costs 219 pesos per month extra.
Basic plan users can add a maximum of one extra household, Standard users two and Premium users three. The extra price is then calculated per extra household. A Premium customer who pays 1199 pesos in Argentina and wants to add three extra households will pay three times 219 pesos extra for a total of 657 pesos.
It is not clear in what quality and on how many devices an extra household works. Netflix writes on a support page that the company uses IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity to determine where a user is. Users can use their normal plan for up to two weeks in a location other than home, but then have to choose whether to change their location permanently or add an additional household to their plan.
Netflix has been experimenting with changing its revenue models since the beginning of this year. The streaming service suffers from competing services, but also from the fact that many users share their account with friends or family and then split the subscription fee. The company is therefore looking for ways to prevent account sharing. Earlier this year, it started a trial to charge subscribers extra when they add other users to their subscription. This trial is still ongoing in a number of countries, such as Costa Rica. The company is also working on a cheaper version that contains advertisements.
