Netflix is launching a new feature globally to reduce password sharing. The feature is called Profile Transfer.
Through this tool, the profile holders transfer their profile from the account of someone they’re no longer in contact with.
Another news suggested that the company’s new ad-supported tier will cost £4.99 per month.
The product manager, Timi Kosztin wrote in a blog post: ‘People move. Families grow. Relationships end. But throughout these life changes, your Netflix experience should stay the same.’
‘No matter what’s going on, let your Netflix profile be a constant in a life full of changes so you can sit back, relax and continue watching right from where you left off.’
To transfer a profile, users will select the ‘Transfer Profile’ option on the dropdown menu on the homepage and then follow the prompts including updating personal information including billing details.
Netflix says Profile Transfer can be disabled in account settings at any time, and the duplicated profile won’t be automatically removed from the original account.
The current password-sharing practice reduces the revenue and ‘undermines our long-term ability to invest in and improve our service’, Netflix says.
According to a 2019 study, Netflix may be losing out on a massive $192 million (£138 million) in revenue each month due to password sharing.
In July, Netflix announced that it had lost nearly one million subscribers in the second quarter of the year – almost five times the amount lost in the first quarter.
Netflix had tried to discourage this practice earlier as well. In March, it started testing a system where users pay an extra fee to share their account with people outside their household.
The system was tested in Peru, Chile, and Costa Rica. It relied on information like IP addresses and device IDs to know the location of devices.
