On Wednesday, US streaming company Netflix announced that it is launching a trial version of its service which requires users who share their password outside their household to pay extra.
The trial version will be launched in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru and will come at an extra monthly cost of between €2 and €3, which will allow users to add one or two accounts outside their household to their profile.
"We have 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," said Product Innovation Director Chengyi Long.
"While these have been hugely popular, they have also created some confusion about when and how Netflix can be shared," Long added. "As a result, accounts are being shared between households – impacting our ability to invest in great new TV and films for our members."
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Additionally, Netflix will also roll out a service in the three test countries that will allow users to transfer a profile to a new account. This way, the streaming giant hopes to encourage people who currently share an account to start their own.
However, it is not yet certain that these changes will start affecting users in Belgium too. "We will be working to understand the utility of these two features for members in these three countries before making changes anywhere else in the world."
Last year, Netflix already tested a mechanism to discourage password sharing: certain users were shown a warning message and had to verify that they lived in the same place as the account owner.
