Netflix’s password sharing clampdown reaches the UK

Netflix’s clampdown on subscribers sharing accounts between households has reached the UK, with the streaming service now charging an additional £4.99 a month for any user not predominantly based in an account’s “primary location”.

Netflix has been threatening a crackdown on password sharing as a means of shoring up is stagnating subscriber numbers for some time now, and it began rolling out a related series of measures built around the notion of a designated “primary location” in February, albeit initially only in a limited number of countries.

Since then, Netflix’s measures have continued to spread around the globe, and, as of today, are live in the UK. The streaming service says it has started emailing members that share their accounts with users outside their household, telling them they’ll need to cough up an additional £4.99 a month if they want to continue doing so.

As it previously detailed, Netflix considers a household to exist in a single “primary location” – either set manually by an account holder on their TV or as determined by the streaming service – and all household devices must watch something while connected to Wi-Fi there “at least once every 31 days”. Any devices not regularly connected at an account’s primary location – Netflix will be snooping IP addresses and device IDs to check – risk being blocked from access.

Netflix also previously outlined a convoluted set of steps users would need to follow if they wanted to use a device not recently registered on a household Wi-Fi system or that had been blocked, essentially requiring the main account holder to request a temporary 7-day access code they’d then need to pass on to the affected user – but the streaming service’s not especially helpful Help Centre doesn’t appear to have much to say on that process right now.

In January, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the company expected some “cancel reaction” to its anti-account sharing changes, admitting it would “not be a universally popular move”.

Those wishing to cancel their subscription after today’s changes can do so via this link.