Netflix will begin charging ‘extra user’ fees early next year

We all knew it was coming. The next phase of Netflix’s months-long crackdown on password sharing — which itself follows the company’s first quarterly subscriber loss in a decade — is soon upon us. The company announced during its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that it will charge customers an added monthly fee to people who share their login credentials beginning in early 2023.

This move is an expansion of a pilot program currently running in Latin America which charges extra fees for “extra user” subaccounts, users outside of your immediate household who use your login to access the service. Basically, every listing on the “Who’s Watching?” screen is going to cost you extra money if they don’t also live with you.

The news comes as Netflix attempts to return to growth and settle investors after confirming it lost subscribers earlier in the year. With help from Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Season Four of Stranger Things, the company was able to add more than 2.4 million subscribers in its third quarter.

Netflix has not yet announced pricing for the punitive charges, though if they follow the pilot program’s “one quarter of the basic rate” scheme, it should work out to around US$3-4. For folks wanting to avoid those fees, Netflix unveiled on Monday an account migration tool that will transfer a user’s subaccount data (viewing history, recommendations and the like) to their new, independent subscription.

In addition, the company recently announced a less expensive, ad-supported tier that will cost $7 a month when it launches on November 3rd. The new tier will be available in a dozen countries, including the UK, Canada, and Mexico, by November 10th.