Netflix End to Password Sharing could cost Caribbean Customers A lot

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer 

February 11, 2023 – Despite a reported earnings of $7.85 billion dollars, an explosive showing according to financial forecasts, many say there is a new move to drive profits even higher.   An end to password sharing; but it is attracting some unsavory comments and worry.

Analysts suspect, Caribbean families are going to be particularly hard hit.

Last week in the United States, Netflix informed customers that they would have to log into the home Wi-Fi used to set up the Netflix account at least once a month or they would be kicked off of the Netflix subscription or the subscriber charged more.

The new rules which made no exception for military families, people who travel for work, students in college and others ignited a firestorm across US social media.  The streaming giant quickly took back the statement describing it as a ‘leak’.

Despite this, they have continued to crack down on password sharing quietly around the globe.  It’s already in effect in some parts of Latin America and Europe as well as Canada and while it hasn’t hit the Caribbean, if it does the impact will be devastating.

The Caribbean has one of the largest Diasporas in the world, courtesy of massive amounts of brain drain.  Partners, parents and children have grown accustomed to living apart and connecting via the Internet and yearly family trips back to ‘yaad’.

For the past 12  years, Netflix has been a much loved part of that connection with parents setting up kiddy accounts for their children left in the care of trusted grandparents or family members, or young people with attending college overseas and away from their Caribbean families; the same is true for families in Latin America and the streaming company made more than $4 billion off of the region last year about half the revenue of Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined.

Despite this, it continues to impose rules that may block millions of its consumers and their families from accessing the product.  Netflix already shears down its catalog by a very large chunk in terms of offerings to the Caribbean region, with subscribers here missing out on some of its most popular non-original shows and movies.

Being unable to share screens just might be the last straw for Caribbean families.