Netflix extends account sharing trial to households on a location basis

Netflix is ​​expanding its account sharing test. In a number of countries, the streaming service is starting a trial where subscription holders can add extra households. The service uses geolocation to determine when to add a new household.

Netflix the trial begins in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The streaming service is investigating the possibilities to prevent account sharing. Unlike a previous trial, the test is not about additional paying sub-accounts, but households. In the trial, users can take out one subscription per household. That costs about half of the subscription. In Argentina, a Basic subscription costs 429 pesos per month. An additional household costs an additional 219 pesos per month.

Basic plan users can add up to one additional household, Standard users two, and Premium users three. The additional price will then be calculated per additional household. A Premium customer who pays 1199 pesos in Argentina and wants to add three extra households pays an extra 219 pesos three times, a total of 657 pesos.

It is not clear in what quality and on how many devices an additional household works. Netflix writes on a support page that the company uses IP addresses, device IDs and account activity to determine where a user is located. Users can use their regular subscription in a location other than home for up to two weeks, but then must choose whether to permanently change their location or add an additional household to their subscription.

Netflix has been experimenting with changing its revenue models since the beginning of this year. The streaming service suffers from competing services, but also from the fact that many users share their account with friends or family and then split the subscription fee. The company is therefore looking for ways to prevent account sharing. Earlier this year, it began a trial to charge subscribers extra when they add other users to their plan. That test is still running in a number of countries such as Costa Rica. The company is also working on a cheaper version that contains advertisements.