Netflix is considering a different approach to enforcing a password-sharing charge

Customers can watch on one device at a time with a basic plan. The premium plan supports four devices, while the more expensive standard plan supports just two.

In five Latin American nations, Netflix Inc. will charge users a fee to use their account in another nation. The company is conducting this test in the hopes that charging users to share their Netflix accounts will result in more sales. Customers using an account for more than two weeks outside of their primary residence in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, or the Dominican Republic will be charged an additional fee, the company announced on Monday. This won't have an impact on how people use Netflix while travelling or on mobile devices like laptops, tablets, or smartphones. In Argentina, the additional home will cost 219 pesos ($1.70), while it will cost $2.99 abroad.

More than 100 million households are using accounts that were purchased by other people, according to Netflix, which cites password sharing as one of the main causes of its sluggish subscriber growth. The business lost 200,000 clients in the first quarter and anticipated losing 2,000,000 more in the following. Investors' concerns that the streaming industry is in trouble have caused its share price to decline by more than 65% this year.

In a blog post, Chengyi Long, director of product innovation, stated that "today's pervasive account sharing between households undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve our service."

In Latin America, where Netflix is running its first two tests to see if subscribers will pay for access, password sharing has been especially prevalent. Without punishing Netflix subscribers or alienating viewers, the company is attempting to restrict sharing. Some customers have been concerned that they will lose access to their accounts because the effort has occasionally been portrayed as a crackdown.

The business is experimenting with ways to charge more if multiple people use the same Netflix account. In its initial attempt, the business requested extra payment from customers in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru to add a member to an account. This new user creates a sub-account with their email address, receives their stream, and is permitted to use Netflix concurrently with the primary user up to the allotted time on their plan.

Customers can watch on one device at a time with a basic plan. The premium plan allows for four devices, while the more expensive standard plan only allows for two.

Customers who are using the same account in multiple households are the focus of this most recent test. Let's say they spend more than two weeks using an account at a location other than one of their paying households. They will then get a notification from within the app asking them to either add a household or move their primary household to the new area.

Customers have control over their properties and can add or remove them as they see fit. There is no increase in the number of simultaneous Netflix viewers when additional households are added.