Netflix may be clamping down on password sharing sooner than expected, according to a recent note shared with employees.
Last month, Netflix announced it was trialling a crackdown on users sharing passwords with other people, testing the waters in countries including Chile, Costa Rica and Peru.
However, it looks like it may be rolling out the trial globally much sooner than customers may have realised, with The New York Times reporting that it could happen as early as October this year.
The news outlet spoke to ‘two people who shared details of the communication on the condition of anonymity to describe internal company discussions’, who said a note recently issued to staff said Netflix was aiming to introduce a lower-priced ad-supported tier in the final three months of 2022.
The pair said executives also explained how the company planned to crack down on password sharing among its subscriber base around the same time.
The recent note to Netflix employees signalled that the planned rollout had sped up, saying: “Yes, it’s fast and ambitious and it will require some trade-offs."
The note also saw execs mention competitors such as HBO and Hulu, which they said had been able to ‘maintain strong brands while offering an ad-supported service’.
“Every major streaming company excluding Apple has or has announced an ad-supported service,” it continued.
“For good reason, people want lower-priced options.”
Execs also said the ad-supported tier – which is set to be cheaper than current packages – would be introduced ‘in tandem with our broader plans to charge for sharing’.
Just last month, Netflix announced plans to introduce two new test features, aiming to avoid the 'confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared'.
The two options are: 'Add an extra member', and 'Transfer Profile to a New Account'.
In the statement, Netflix said at the time: "Members on our Standard and Premium plans will be able to add sub accounts for up to two people they don’t live with – each with their own profile, personalised recommendations, login and password – at a lower price: 2,380 CLP in Chile, 2.99 USD in Costa Rica, and 7.9 PEN in Peru.
"Members on our Basic, Standard, and Premium plans can enable people who share their account to transfer profile information either to a new account or an Extra Member sub account – keeping the viewing history, My List, and personalized recommendations.
"We recognize that people have many entertainment choices, so we want to ensure any new features are flexible and useful for members, whose subscriptions fund all our great TV and films.
"We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world."
LADbible has reached out to Netflix for comment.
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