Giant of online monitoring movies and series announced that he was putting “freeze” an attempt to prevent their users from sharing for free their accounts on the platform with people who do not live in the same household for at least one quarter.

Initially, the company decided to test the account sharing fee in the Canadian and Spanish markets. However, a letter to its shareholders at the end of the first fiscal quarter of the year said the initiative was met with a retaliatory “cancellation campaign” that led to the decision to close until the next quarter for fear of losing revenue.

What Netflix he admitted that the decision cost him “in the short term” as he did not see the usual increase in his subscriptions during the first quarter. Specifically, it added 1.7 million users worldwide, bringing the total number of users to almost 233 million, according to data released yesterday. On the other hand, he argues that the financial damage is small and will soon be covered.

Increase the number of subscriptions

The company estimates that around 100 million households around the world share their accounts on the platform for free. Morgan Stanley estimates that the company could convert 20-30% of those users to subscription accounts. “The account sharing initiative was about generating more potential subscribers,” said the CEO of the Greek-American company, Ted Sarandos. “That’s why we insist on it so much,” he added.

After the company shocked investors last April by revealing it had lost subscribers for the first time in a decade, it announced two new revenue-boosting plans: a ban on sharing the same account outside of the household and the introduction of a cheaper subscription. accompanied by advertisements. The second concept, which received mixed reviews, has been in development since November last year.

Decrease in profit

Netflix expects a delay in starting codeshare payments to have a small impact on earnings in the second quarter, but sees a recovery from the third quarter onwards, and management is optimistic about meeting its financial targets set for the current year.

As for the cheapest subscription with ads, the company said in the letter that most customers prefer to pay for more expensive subscriptions without ads.

The company also announced that it will permanently stop providing rental services next September. DVD. The decision ended the 25-year-old service that was the heart of Netflix when it was founded in 1997.

If, finally, the charge for “separation” of accounts is indeed introduced in the rest of the world markets in the second quarter, this means that we will see it in our country by the end of June at the latest.

Users should initially set as the primary device the one they use most often and which is connected to the fixed Internet network. All devices in the same home using the same Wi-Fi will not ask for payment, and if they want to add additional users to their account, they will have to pay an additional amount that has not yet been determined.