When does Netflix plan to end password sharing?

Streaming giant Netflix, having already hiked its subscription fees in 2022, announced that within this fiscal quarter it will roll out a new paid sharing option and put an end to subscribers freely sharing their passwords, after releasing its company earnings report to shareholders.

The practice of sharing passwords to watch the services’ wealth of films and television series was previously loosely allowed, but this is no longer working for Netflix, as the streaming giant finally put in writing this week that subscribers can expect free password sharing to end by March and that the company will start to charge those who share their passwords.

Netflix, which reaches over a 100 million households worldwide, wrote in a letter to shareholders that the company has put a first-quarter deadline on password sharing — which means it will be sometime in the next 10 weeks — in favor of a new “paid sharing” system.

The shareholder letter, released to the public on Tuesday by Fortune, stated that the practice of password sharing undermines the company’s ability to grow in the long-term, and they therefore will introduce a new payment structure.

“Today’s widespread account sharing (100M+ households) undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business,” the statement reads. “Members in many countries will also have the option to pay extra if they want to share Netflix with people they don’t live with.”

About the new Netflix rules

The company stated in the letter that they already do, in fact, have existing password sharing rules in their “terms of use”, but they “recognize this is a change for members who share their account more broadly.”

Netflix wrote that the new paid sharing structure offers “the ability for members to review which devices are using their account and to transfer a profile to a new account.”

Netflix admits crackdown won’t be universally popular

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters recently told Variety that the crackdown on shared passwords would “not be a universally popular move”, and that the company would give customers who continue to share accounts “a gentle nudge” to pay extra for the multi-household use.