• Netflix subscribers in the US and UK are receiving emails regarding paid sharing.
• The offer is only available on Standard and Premium packages with paid sharing costing $7.99 per extra member.
• Extra members have their own account and log in credentials but with severe limitations versus the main account.

On Tuesday the US and UK started to receive word of Netflix‘s plans to implement measures which prevent password sharing among friends and families.

“Your Netflix account is for you and the people you live with – your household”, the streaming giant told subscribers.

Netflix gives customers two options, the first is for the subscriber to tell anybody they’re sharing their account with to transfer their profile. The second option is for the account owner to buy an extra member at $7.99 (~R153.89). This is of course in addition to the existing subscription fee which doesn’t change.

As The Verge reports, paid sharing isn’t even available for all packages with those on the Standard and Premium packages only able to pay for an additional one and two members respectively. Basic and Basic with Ads packages don’t have the option to add an extra member.

Extra member profiles have their own profile account and password but they will only be able to watch on one device – it can be any device – at a time. Downloads are available but again, only on one device at a time.

The account holder can change extra members at any time up to twice per billing period with the current extra member losing access immediately. Should the account holder cancel the extra member, that member will have access until the end of the billing period but if the extra member cancels the account it’s cancelled immediately and access is lost.

It’s all just very complicated and messy which to our mind suggests that Netflix really just wants you to pay for your own account.

Whether that will happen remains to be seen but early signs from regions where paid sharing has been tested shows a decline in the number of subscribers.

Public reaction to paid sharing has been volatile with subscribers threatening to cancel their subscriptions outright if Netflix moves forward with its plans.

With paid sharing now here for US and UK subscribers those threats are about to be tested.