Skip to main content

Netflix to test Add a Home feature for password sharing

Netflix is continuing to explore ways to deal with subscribers who share their passwords with friends and family members who aren’t signed up to the streaming service.

The company said on Monday it’s launching a feature called Add a Home, which asks subscribers to pay a little extra if they wish to share their Netflix account with others.

Recommended Videos

It follows a similar Add Extra Member feature for Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru that Netflix began trialing in March.

Starting next month, Add a Home will be available to Netflix subscribers in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. If either of the features is successful, we can expect something along these lines to be rolled out more widely.

Add a Home works like this:

Regardless of a subscriber’s plan, each Netflix account will be linked to one home where they can access Netflix on any of their devices.

If a subscriber wants to share access to their account with another household, Netflix will ask for an additional payment of about $3 per month. Subscribers signed up to the Basic plan can add one extra home, Standard subscribers can add up to two extra homes, and Premium subscribers can add up to three.

The deal also lets added users access Netflix on the move and while traveling so they’re not restricted to watching content at the designated households.

Netflix said that the new Add a Home feature will let a subscriber control where their account is being used.

The Add Extra Member option that Netflix started testing in March allows Standard and Premium subscribers to add sub-accounts for up to two people they don’t live with, also at an additional cost of about $3 per account.

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

Long added that Netflix wants to be “as thoughtful as possible about how we charge for use across multiple homes,” promising not to make changes in other countries “until we better understand what’s easiest for our members.”

Today is a big day for Netflix as the company is about to report its latest quarterly figures. Its last report three months ago revealed the company’s first dip in subscriber numbers in a decade, with a loss of 200,000 members over the previous quarter. Forecasts suggest it could have lost a further 2 million during the latest quarter. It seems unlikely that Netflix will include Add a Home and Add Extra Members users in its future subscriber counts, but the payments for those features will at least serve to increase its bottom line.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Treason trailer features Charlie Cox in Netflix’s MI6 series
Charlie Cox stands against the wall in a scene from Treason.

Netflix has released the first trailer for Treason, an espionage thriller set in the world of MI6. The limited series features Charlie Cox as Adam Lawrence, a British intelligence officer thrust into command after a failed assassination attempt against the chief of MI6.

Treason | Official Trailer | Netflix

Read more
Is Netflix the right home for The Sandman?
The Sandman sitting in a chair in all black looking serious from The Sandman on Netflix.

The Sandman, Neil Gaiman's iconic and seminal exploration of dreams, fantasy, and the occult, is getting a lush adaptation on Netflix. Famously described by Norman Mailer as "a comic strip for intellectuals," The Sandman is among the finest pieces of storytelling and artistry we've seen in the comic book genre. It is famously challenging, thought-provoking, philosophical, and unwilling -- or perhaps unable -- to confine itself in any given category. Like its famously elusive protagonist, The Sandman flows, twists, and turns throughout a story that remains engaging, even if it is not always approachable.

Reviews for the show have been strong out of the gate; it currently sits at an impressive 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics call it loyal to a fault to its source material, praising its production values, ambition, and willingness to bring Gaiman's vision to life. The Sandman's positive reception is a win in and of itself; like Alan Moore's Watchmen, Gaiman's graphic novel was often considered too unyielding for a traditional adaptation. The word "unfilmable" often accompanied its title, despite several attempts to bring it into live action.

Read more
Netflix shares first look at pictures from The Gray Man
Chris Evans in The Gray Man.

The summer months tend to get all of the big movies, and this year, even Netflix has a summer blockbuster to call its own. Avengers Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo are helming The Gray Man, an upcoming spy movie/action thriller that may be the most expensive film in Netflix's history. This film also has an all-star cast that would make it the envy of any theatrical release. And while the first trailer is a few months away, Netflix has released a few pictures of The Gray Man cast in character.

Ryan Gosling is headlining the film as Court Gentry, a CIA black ops mercenary who is so skilled that no one truly knows who he really is. However, that anonymity can't protect Court when he discovers information that incriminates the CIA itself.

Read more