When will Netflix start paid password-sharing plans in the US?

Netflix has had a tumutluous six months. Bruised by the first ever drop in subscriber numbers, the company has been scrabbling for ways to increase revenue in an increasingly competitive market.

One of these plans was to introduce a cheaper subscription which includes advertising. Another was a crackdown on users sharing accounts, despite old Netflix promotion lauding the practice.

It was announced inside the streaming site’s first quarter (Q1) earnings report that the rollout of a paid passport-sharing plan would happen in Q2.

“In Q1, we launched paid sharing in four countries and are pleased with the results,” Netflix said in its Q1 letter to shareholders. “We are planning on a broad rollout, including in the US, in Q2.”

Q2 refers to the period of April, May, and June.

Estimates from the company itself point to more than 100 million accounts that would be in violation of its rules of sharing outside a household.

“A Netflix account is meant to be shared in one household (people who live in the same location with the account owner),” the company says on the customer-help section of its site. “People who are not in your household will need to sign up for their own account to watch Netflix.”

Outside of the US, the passport-sharing plan has already been implemented in Canada, New New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain in February as well as trials in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.

How the CEO describes the passport-sharing crackdown

Co-CEO Greg Peters explained to investors that there would be an initial hit in the number of subscribers as people react to the move.

“As with Latin America, we see a cancel reaction in each market when we announce [passport sharing payments], which impacts near-term member growth,” the company said. “But as borrowers start to activate their own accounts and existing members add ‘extra member’ accounts, we see increased acquisition and revenue.”