Netflix is not a fan of folks sharing accounts between households and it wants to crack down on password sharing.

In its defence, section four of Netflix’s terms of use states that, “The Netflix service and any content accessed through the service are for your personal and non-commercial use only and may not be shared with individuals beyond your household”.

Despite this, account sharing is rather popular among Netflix users and rather than blocking users from sharing accounts, Netflix has another idea.

“We’ve always made it easy for people who live together to share their Netflix account, with features like separate profiles and multiple streams in our Standard and Premium plans. While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared. As a result, accounts are being shared between households – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members,” Netflix’s director of production innovation Chengyi Long wrote in a press release.

So what is the solution? Charging subscribers more to add something called a sub-account.

A sub-account allows two people who don’t live with the account holder to stream content on Netflix. For now this solution is being tested in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru. The pricing for sub-accounts in each of these countries follows below:

• Chile – CRP 2 380 (~R44).
• Costa Rica – $2.99 (~R44).
• Peru – Sol 7.9 (~R31).

Folks that share your account with you also have the option to transfer profile information to a new account or the sub-account. This will preserve viewing history, My List preferences and personalised recommendations.

These changes are now guaranteed, however, and Netflix could decide to simply stop account sharing with no alternatives.

“We’ll be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world,” Long added.

While we dislike that this is happening, we have to commend Netflix for exploring alternative solutions before pulling a MultiChoice and restricting account sharing entirely.

If you are currently sharing your account with your children or your parents, friends, ex-partner and so on, you might want to inform them of these changes. We also highly recommend broaching the topic of those folks paying their share.

Considering a Premium plan could end up costing close to R250, it’s only fair.