After testing various systems in Latin America for monetizing usage of its service that doesn't occur in the homes of its members, Netflix said it's ready to deploy a formal plan early next year.
"We've landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we'll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023," Netflix said in its third-quarter letter to shareholders, published Tuesday.
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"After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts ('extra member'), if they want to pay for family or friends," the letter added.
The investment community has nagged Netflix to crack down on freeloaders for years, but it wasn't until the streaming company's "Black Tuesday" Q1 earnings report in April that it showed it will do something about it.
Over the spring and summer, Netflix began testing in Latin America systems that charged users a nominal fee — $2.99, say — for each person not living in their home but using their account.
And earlier this week, the company formally announced a new feature, "Profile Transfer," that lets users easily port their user profile to another account — a precursor to Netflix’s crackdown next year. ▪️
