Netflix says thou shalt not share passwords

Sharing a Netflix account with your ex who doesn’t know you still use their password may not be so easy in a year’s time, when a password sharing fee is introduced.  

Netflix reported a 200,000-subscriber loss in the first 2022 quarter in the US alone, and the blame has been placed on password sharing. While there are over 222 million paying subscriber households, their subscriptions are shared with 40 per cent of Netflix users – over 100 million homes. 

On a Massive Magazine Instagram poll, 81 per cent of you said you don’t pay for your Netflix subscriptions. Cheapskates, the lot of ya. While we all took for the granted the luxury of Netflix and chilling for free, Netflix is cracking down on us stingy bitches with a fee for sharing passwords. Netflix will be testing the fee in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru where users can add two profiles. The fee is 2,380 Chilean pesos, 2.99 U.S. dollars and 7.9 Peruvian sol. The trial will go for about a year before expanding. Netflix hopes this will boost their revenue and reduce password sharing.  

Sarah Saint-Pere, who is in her third year of a Bachelor of Communications, shares accounts with her boyfriend’s friend who doesn’t even know she uses it. She wasn’t surprised 81 per cent of Massive followers don’t pay for their Netflix subscription. “As a student, it's not an expense I wanna make, it took me so long to even get Spotify premium and even that I share with my sisters.” 

“I’m also just cheap.” 

“I feel bad because I’m literally a Media student but I don’t wanna have to pay for something like that.” Saint-Pere said you should start paying for your own account when you have a full-time job and are in a more “stable financial situation”. Or, for her circumstance, “When I’m not relying on my allowance.” Fair enough.  

Madi Henderson, who studies Makeup Artistry at Te Auaha said putting a fee on sharing passwords is “fucking stupid”. Henderson predicts pirated movies and shows will increase. “It's no longer a matter of who's cheaper, it's what we can get away with.” She uses her parents Netflix “because I’m barely being able to pay for housing … being a young person is insane especially when you move out of home.” And also, “Because I am a leech.”