Netflix password sharing could be ending as soon as March

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After months of talking about it, Netflix is finally planning to crack down on password sharing ‘more broadly’ in the coming months.

Password sharing was a major focus in the company’s latest earnings report (PDF) published this week.

“Later in Q1, we expect to start rolling out paid sharing more broadly,” reads the report. And this shouldn’t come as a surprise to those keeping up with Netflix news.

In March of last year, Netflix started its movement to clamp down on password sharing.

It began testing ways to slow password sharing in Latin America, with an extra fee of $2.99 for any account sharing passwords with another home.

The streaming giant has been struggling slightly in the last 12 months, losing many subscribers throughout the last year.

It even lost the top spot among streaming platforms to Prime Video for the first time since its launch.

And this crackdown could see the platform continue to lose customers. But the company thinks the change will lead to more revenue in the future.

With more revenue from less password sharing, Netflix can continue to produce original content to separate itself from the competition.

Management hopes that that will, in turn, entice more users into signing up for their own accounts.

The company didn’t share any dates, but “later in Q1” means we could see changes implemented sometime around March.

Nevertheless, look out for the inevitable end of using your buddy’s Netflix account for free.

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