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From DVDs to Academy Awards: The history of Netflix
Netflix paved the way for countless other entertainment streaming services to follow.
Netflix plans to bar users from sharing passwords for free by the end of March of this year, according to a recent company announcement in a letter to shareholders.
Back in October, the streaming giant said it would begin charging subscribers who share their accounts but did not give a specific date or information for when the new policy would be enacted.
In a quarter four earnings report released late last week, Netflix revealed it would implement the paid sharing system across the platform in the latter portion of quarter one.
"Today’s widespread account sharing (100M+ households) undermines our long term ability to invest in and improve Netflix, as well as build our business," Netflix said in a letter to shareholders. While our terms of use limit use of Netflix to a household, we recognize this is a change for members who share their account more broadly."
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"So we've worked hard to build additional new features that improve the Netflix experience, including the ability for members to review which devices are using their account and to transfer a profile to a new account."
The company noted that the new policy would likely lead to "near term engagement" being "negatively impacted" as some users stop consuming content on the platform due to the loss of a free account.
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However, Netflix assured shareholders that, despite the new changes, engagement will grow "over time as we continue to deliver a great slate of programming and borrowers sign-up for their own accounts."