Netflix’s crackdown on account sharing has started in Australia, following trials in New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, and Canada.
The streaming giant has introduced a new feature that expects you to pay for the ability to share your Netflix account. It’s not a huge additional price, mind you, but a price increase nonetheless.
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans,” a Netflix blog post read in March 2022, when the company began trialling the crackdown overseas.
“While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members.”
Let’s explain what Netflix’s new rules on account sharing might mean for you if you’ve been sharing a single account across several households.
New Netflix account sharing rules in Australia
Netflix’s new rules in Australia mean that users will need to set a primary location for their account. A new ‘Managing Access and Devices’ page (located under ‘Security and Privacy’ in account settings) has been introduced that will let users control who and what devices have account access, showing devices that have recently logged in.
Users will still be able to use their Netflix accounts when travelling, such as in hotel rooms, according to a Netflix blog post. The account will need to be logged in to at the primary location every 31 days, otherwise, access outside of the primary location would be restricted.
If you’re sharing your account with people outside of your household, you can ‘buy’ extra members that don’t live at the primary location (this can be done under the ‘Extra Members’ tab in account settings). Standard plans have one extra member purchase available, while premium users can add two extra members. These extra Netflix members cost an extra $7.99 in Australia.
Account users can transfer their profiles to other accounts if migrating to another household, saving your list, history and recommendations.
The extra members feature might actually end up saving some people money. If your family members all use separate Netflix accounts, for example, you could consolidate them all under one master account and end up saving money.
But speaking broadly, Netflix thinks people are account sharing outside of their homes too much.
This article has been updated since it was originally published.