As Netflix slowly builds back the fanbase that it lost during the first quarter of 2022, the company has been testing out various ways to try to make back some of its money. The streamer has been toying with the idea of paid advertisements and cracking down on password-sharing. Now, Netflix is hoping to pull a Hulu and charge for additional homes on each plan.
In a new blog post, the streamer broke down how the “Paid Sharing” update would go. Those who wish to add multiple homes would have a monthly upcharge per household:
Each Netflix account – whatever your plan – will include one home where you can enjoy Netflix on any of your devices. To use your Netflix account in additional homes, we will ask you to pay an extra [219 Pesos per month per home in Argentina / $2.99 per month per home in the Dominican Republic / $2.99 per month per home in Honduras / $2.99 per month per home in El Salvador / $2.99 per month per home in Guatemala]. Members on the Basic plan can add one extra home, Standard up to two extra, and Premium up to three extra. You will soon be able to control where your account is being used – and remove homes at any time – from your account settings page.
The company also confirmed that viewers can still access their “home” account on the go, using a tablet or laptop while traveling.
This rollout will be for customers who are using the same account in multiple households. If that account is used somewhere other than one of their paying households for more than two weeks, they will get a notification asking them to either add a household or change their primary household to the new location. If not… they will lose the ability to re-watch Stranger Things, which is a nightmare to some.
While the feature is still in its early days of testing, there are still other (less confusing and easier) ways that the streamer is hoping to get users on board, including adding cheaper, ad-supported tiers. Hulu has a similar location-based model which is notoriously stressful for families who don’t share a zip code, so maybe that’s not the best way to do things.
Even though Netflix has been warning users about this for some time, it still stings. Maybe it’s time we re-introduce cable back into the cultural consciousness.