Credit: Unsplash

The system will require additional fees to stream outside the account-holder’s home.

Netflix has made no secret of their distaste for the practice of password-sharing lately, believing that people sharing Netflix accounts with family and friends cuts down on their potential subscriber income. In recent months, Netflix has been tinkering with the idea of somehow forcing users to get their own accounts rather than sharing.

Today, Netflix announced the launch of a test version of this idea, named Netflix Homes. This test will run in Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic, and will require anyone who attempts to use the account of a separate household to pay a separate fee or be blocked.

“Beginning August 22, 2022, when you sign in to Netflix on a TV outside of your home, you will see the option to add the extra home for an additional fee per month,” reads the Honduras version of the Netflix support page. “If you will only be using this TV for a limited time, you can watch Netflix for up to 2 weeks at no extra charge as long your account has not been previously used in that location. After that time, the TV will be blocked unless you add the extra home.”

Netflix's password-sharing crackdown continues, as the company is asking customers in five more countries to pay up if they share their login information with people outside of their home. https://t.co/8n1KF5PH4W

— IGN (@IGN) July 19, 2022

According to the support page, Netflix would determine extra-account usage through identifying metrics like account usage, location data, and IP addresses. Netflix believes that this practice will encourage extra-account users to get their own accounts, which in turn would bolster Netflix’s sagging subscriber numbers.

“It’s great that our members love Netflix movies and TV shows so much they want to share them more broadly,” Chengyi Long, Netflix’s director of product innovation, said in a statement. “But today’s widespread account sharing between households undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve our service.”