A few months ago Netflix announced plans to introduce additional charges for account sharing among subscribers. The policy rollout began in several countries, focusing on five regions: Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The goal is to discourage password sharing with people who do not pay for the service by applying a separate fee to users who log in from outside the home to access Netflix on a television.
The initiative is slated to start on August 22, with testing in these five countries that will involve charging extra for subscribers who access the service from devices outside the home and connected to a television.
This mechanism, branded as “Netflix Homes,” imposes an additional monthly charge whenever a subscriber uses a device outside the usual residence to watch Netflix on a TV. The proposed amount is 2.99 USD per month for each extra household; in the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras the equivalent is 219 pesos or 1.68 euros for Argentina. Netflix notes that the fee applies only when users choose to add additional homes to their account; it is not automatic. As of August 22, 2022, customers will be asked whether they wish to add homes for an extra monthly fee to use the Netflix account in those locations, a detail reflected in the Honduras Help Center, one of the initial testing sites. Consequently, watching Netflix on the go from laptops or mobile devices will not incur this extra charge in areas where the Netflix Homes feature is not activated.
The policy shifts when the display device is a television. In such cases, the user may still sign in on laptops or mobile devices and cast to a TV for up to two weeks. Beyond that window, the user could face an additional fee if the login originated from a location outside the home and the device used is a television.
Usage limits are tied to the location and can be managed per location per year unless the user has already logged in from that site. If a subscriber operates the Netflix account on a TV outside the normal residence for more than two weeks, an extra charge becomes applicable. The availability of extra residences depends on the subscription tier: Basic allows adding up to two additional homes, Standard permits up to three, and Premium supports the most generous configuration.
Netflix states that it can detect households by examining signals such as IP addresses, device identifiers, and patterns of activity within the account. These signals help determine when the same account is used in multiple locations, enabling Netflix to apply the new billing structure where appropriate.