Sorry to be the bearers of bad news, but Netflix has begun rolling out its crackdown on password-sharing here in the UK.
The streaming giant first revealed it would be trying out ways to prevent users from sharing their account with people outside of their household last year, following a drop in subscribers.
On Tuesday evening, the first part of this plan was put into effect, when Netflix began contacting “members who are sharing Netflix outside their household”, including those living in Britain.
“A Netflix account is for use by one household,” Netflix said. “Everyone living in that household can use Netflix wherever they are – at home, on the go, on holiday – and take advantage of new features like Transfer Profile and Manage Access and Devices.
“We recognise that our members have many entertainment choices. It’s why we continue to invest heavily in a wide variety of new films and TV programmes – so whatever your taste, mood or language and whoever you’re watching with, there’s always something satisfying to watch on Netflix.”
In their email to subscribers, users were encouraged to “check who’s using your Netflix”,“review which devices are signed in to your account” and “sign out of devices that shouldn’t have access”.
Subscribers were also encouraged to take advantage of a new “buy an extra member” feature that will allow them to share their account with one other household other than their own.
This feature will cost subscribers an additional £4.99 a month, on top of their existing subscription fee.
In April 2022, it was revealed that Netflix’s customer base had fallen by around 200,000 subscribers during the January-March quarter that year, the first drop since the platform became available throughout most of the world six years ago.
Among the most-watched offerings on Netflix at the time of writing are the new season of Selling Sunset, the Bridgerton spin-off series Queen Charlotte and numerous films in the Harry Potter saga, which debuted on the service last week.