In an effort to curb password sharing, Netflix is testing a new “add a home” feature for an additional fee per month for customers who want to use the video streaming service on a device outside their primary residence.
The feature is currently being tested in five different Latin American countries: Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic.
“Over the last 15 years, we have worked hard to build a streaming service that’s easy to use, including for people who travel or live together. It is great that our members love Netflix movies and TV shows so much they want to share them more broadly,” the popular video streaming giant said in a blog post.
“But today’s widespread account sharing between households undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve our service.”
According to the company, each Netflix account — whatever your plan — will include one home where you can enjoy Netflix on any device. You can watch Netflix on a TV outside your home for up to 2 weeks as long as your account has not been previously used in that location. This is allowed once per location per year.
If the company finds out that the Netflix member has been using the streaming service either on a TV or other device in a location outside of their primary residence constantly for more than two weeks, Netflix will prompt the user to “buy” an additional household.
In order to use your Netflix account in additional homes, you will be required to pay an extra (219 Pesos per month per home in Argentina / $2.99 per month per home in the Dominican Republic / $2.99 per month per home in Honduras / $2.99 per month per home in El Salvador / $2.99 per month per home in Guatemala).
Further, members on the Basic plan can add one extra home, Standard up to two extra, and Premium up to three extra. Users can watch Netflix outside their homes on their tablets, laptop, or mobile even while traveling. Also, the owner of the account will be able to control how it is being used and remove homes at any time from their account settings page.
“We value our members, and recognize that they have many entertainment choices. So we’re working hard to make great TV shows and films, and to be as thoughtful as possible about how we charge for use across multiple homes. We will not make changes in other countries until we better understand what’s easiest for our members,” the blog post concluded.
The new “add a home” feature, according to Netflix’s Honduras support page, will be launching on August 22, 2022.
Netflix began testing a similar feature called “add extra member” in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru in March 2022 to curb password sharing. This feature requires users to pay extra for adding new members to a Netflix account using individual credentials linked to the primary account.
