Report: Netflix wants to stop sharing passwords

The end of password sharing at Netflix is ​​imminent, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people “familiar with the situation.” For years, the streaming provider has been thinking about how to take action against account sharing. Netflix now wants to solve the problem in 2023.

Why? According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 100 million people view the service using shared passwords. They would have borrowed the passwords from relatives or friends. As a result, the group misses out on potential income.

CEO Reed Hastings said at a company meeting that the issue had been shrouded in the past two years. The reason for this was the streaming boom during the pandemic. At that time there were numerous new subscribers.

As the newspaper continues to write, the company is now all the more concerned about the declining number of customers this year. That’s why Netflix wants to “clash hard” to prevent password sharing in the future.

The pressure on customers must be built up step by step

How will Netflix do this? As a first step, Netflix pointed out on its help pages this year that accounts should only be shared by people living together, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In the coming year, Netflix will then ask people who share accounts to pay. The pressure on customers must be built up step by step, they believe. The company wants to start with the payment request in the US.

How does Netflix plan to recognize who is using shared passwords? The company has indicated that it wants to use the IP addresses of the users for this purpose. Device IDs and account movements should also be used to identify shared accounts.

Disney+ and other providers could follow suit

As the Wall Street Journal continues, Netflix is ​​the first streaming provider to deal with password sharing. But it probably won’t be the last company, the paper quotes investors and media executives.

Other streaming competitors would also suffer losses. In the years to come, the pressure to make money and keep growing could lead to services like Disney+, HBO and Paramount+ tackling the split account issue as well.