The long-discussed crackdown on password sharing by Netflix is finally going to start, according to the streaming giant. This means, users who wish to share their accounts with anyone outside of their home must pay an additional fee.
The move, which aims to increase subscribers, has been tested in some countries but has not yet been used in the UK or the US, reports BBC.
The move comes with the company's announcement that it will end the DVD rental service that launched 25 years ago.
As competition intensifies, households struggle with growing expenses, and what analysts perceive as a saturation point in some of its biggest areas, Netflix has been looking for methods to reignite growth.
In the first half of 2022, it lost more than a million subscribers, said the report.
The decline prompted the company to make adjustments, even though it more than made up for those losses later in the year owing to subscriber growth in Asia.
In an effort to encourage more people to join up for its service, the firm last year launched a less priced streaming alternative with commercials and reduced rates in 116 countries in the three months leading up to March.
Also, it was getting ready to greatly expand its paid sharing programme, which it began testing in a few countries last year and expanded in February, it also said.
In a letter to investors on Tuesday, Netflix stated that paid sharing would be widely available, including in the US, by July. This was a few months later than anticipated because Netflix is still making adjustments to the offering in response to user feedback, such as making sure users can access their accounts easily while on the go.
"We're pleased with the most recent launches," the company said in the letter. "We learn more with each rollout and we've incorporated the latest learnings which we think will lead to even better results."
Netflix estimated that more than 100 million homes share passwords. Netflix intends to capitalize on this market to boost income.
Since it began shipping DVDs to customers in the US in 1998, Netflix, a company based in California, has gone a long way.
With more than 232 million customers worldwide, it became a global powerhouse after launching its streaming service in 2007.
The DVD programme, which will end in September, was described by Netflix in its investor letter as the "booster rocket that got streaming to a leading position".
"We feel so privileged to have been able to share movie nights with our DVD members for so long, so proud of what our employees achieved and excited to continue pleasing entertainment fans for many more decades to come," the company said.
According to Netflix, overall income increased 3.7% year over year to $8.1 billion. It recorded a $1.3 billion profit down from nearly $1.6 billion last year.
