Netflix adds paid account sharing in four countries
Netflix has a plan to deal with rampant account sharing: A program that lets subscribers pay extra to share their account with people outside their household.
The streaming giant introduced paid sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain on Wednesday. It was previously rolled out in multiple markets in Latin America.
While Netflix won’t say when paid sharing will come to other countries, some version of the plan is expected to be introduced in the U.S. in the next few weeks. About one-third of Netflix’s subscribers live in the U.S. and Canada.
Netflix has more than
231 million paid subscribers in 190 countries. The Los Gatos-based company estimates that 100 million households currently are sharing their accounts with others, which impacts the company’s ability to invest in new programming.
“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account with features like profiles and multiple streams,” the company said in a blog post Wednesday. “While these have been hugely popular, they’ve also created confusion about when and how you can share Netflix.”
The monthly fee varies by country; in Canada, it’s 7.99 Canadian dollars, while in Portugal it’s 3.99 euros.
Netflix said it also will allow people who have been borrowing accounts to transfer their viewing history and other preferences to a new, paid subscription.
The company didn’t say what actions it will take if subscribers continue to share accounts outside their household. In a conference call with investors in January, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said the company is trying to be thoughtful and gradual in its rollout. care conglomerate, positioning it to take advantage of a shift in how medical care is paid for.
Amid a highly competitive environment for its longstanding pharmacy business, Rhode Island-based CVS has been expanding into direct patient care via acquisitions, agreeing last year to buy health technology provider Signify Health Inc., a deal expected to close in the first half of this year.
“CVS’s management team now has their work cut out for them, getting two transactions approved by regulators,” said Elizabeth Anderson, an analyst with Evercore ISI. She sees a roughly 80% chance the deal will be cleared, according to a note to clients.