At least in the US…
Maybe you thought: hey, where is Netflix with its new policy against sharing passwords: well, it’s not coming for a while. The streaming service has decided to postpone it until July at the latest. So it’s not off the track, but it’s probably coming in June. This does concern the United States: we do not know what the situation is like for the Netherlands.
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Netflix this week briefed shareholders on its plans, saying it will move its account sharing pricing from late Q1 to Q2 in the United States. It is hoped that this also applies to the Netherlands, but that cannot be said with 100 percent certainty. It is already active in some countries, such as New Zealand, Canada, Portugal and Spain. The new policy went into effect in February.
It is very satisfied with the results in those countries. In Canada, for example, more paying subscribers have already been added. In Canada, it costs 7.99 Canadian dollars more to add a person outside your household to your account (that’s 5.44 euros). This is a monthly allowance, so every month you pay 5.44 euros more for that sharing. Now that’s free. However, it still costs less than creating a new, own account.
1.75 million new subscribers
Netflix postpones it because it still wants to test some possibilities. It also wants to see how this should continue to work when you go on a trip, for example, and how you can then ensure that you still have access to your account. Netflix created this whole policy after losing a lot of subscribers in 2022. However, they quickly reappeared in the second half of the year. In the meantime, many subscribers have also been added due to the new advertising subscription, which is somewhat cheaper. No fewer than 1.75 million units in the first quarter of 2023.
That ad subscription will get an upgrade, Netflix has said. For example, you will soon be able to stream at 1080p instead of 720p. We do not yet have this subscription available in the Netherlands. With us, Netflix Basic is 7.99 euros per month, Standard is 11.99 euros per month and Premium is 15.99 euros per month. It is hoped that an advertising-free subscription will be added, but many Dutch people see that policy against account sharing is completely wrong. Many Dutch people say they will cancel their subscription, but Netflix has already said that it takes cancellations into account. Moreover, Canada has already proven that the new policy apparently does them no harm.
The question remains when exactly it will come to the Netherlands: will Netflix now stick to the countries where it is already present, and then fine-tune it, or will it only apply to the United States that has been postponed? We wait and see.
