Profile Transfer: Netflix Prepares to End Account Sharing

It's a "widely requested feature" that has been slowly rolling out since Monday, Netflix emphasises in its recent media release: the profile transfer. This is supposed to finally allow us to transfer our personal Netflix profile from an existing account to a new one. For example, after a relationship break-up. Or the break-up of a flat share. The highlight is that all personalised recommendations, title and search histories, games and settings as well as saved "My List" content will be retained. As soon as your account is activated for the profile transfer, you will receive an email from Netflix, according to the media release.

Super service, right?

Either way. What Netflix is marketing as a long-awaited innovation is actually the latest prank in the fight against account sharing. That's when you share your Netflix password with one or more people outside your own four walls - a prohibited practice according to the Netflix terms of use, which can be punished by account suspension. But no one has been impressed by this for years. That's exactly what Netflix wants to stop.

Camouflaged as a service

The American streaming service estimates that over 100 million households have Netflix without paying for it. At the same time, subscription numbers have been shrinking for months. Alarm bells are ringing at the publicly listed company.

In April, Netflix therefore launched a test run in countries such as Chile, Costa Rica and Peru to find out whether people would be willing to voluntarily pay for legal account sharing. At launch, the account-sharing feature cost an additional $2.99 per month.

As part of the legal account sharing, Netflix also tested another feature: the aforementioned profile transfer. This should reduce resistance. After all, preferences and recommendations stored in the algorithm can be transferred to a new, separate - but of course chargeable - account. The emphasis is on "new" account, as can be seen from Netflix's help page: For example, someone who moves out of their parents' house to live with their partner cannot transfer their existing profile to an existing account - only to a completely new one.

This is precisely what exposes the "service" that has now been launched worldwide: If the Americans were really concerned with a service to their users, the profile transfer would also function to merge profiles. Instead, the transfer remains a function that ideally turns an account with multiple profiles into multiple accounts with a single profile - never the other way around.

Is the end of account sharing approaching?

Voluntary fees for legal account sharing, profile transfers and soon to come advertising-supported subscriptions: Netflix means business. Most recently, the streaming service even launched new tests in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. There, existing accounts have been assigned to a fixed household via IP address since August. Those who want to use the same account elsewhere pay an additional fee of between two and three dollars per household. On the other hand, those who use their Netflix account on a different TV set while travelling are supposed to be able to do so for a fortnight without paying an additional fee.

Netflix is walking a fine line, however. Especially after the recent price hikes for what is already the world's most expensive streaming service. At worst, the competition would merely become more appetising: if someone opts out of an account, that's no guarantee that the person who opts out will create a new account. That means fewer views. Less hype. Surprising viral hits, such as "Squid Game" last year, would not be impossible as a result, but they would be more difficult. And Netflix needs them to justify its high costs and prices.