Netflix is proscribing subscribers from sharing their login particulars with family and friends (Image: GETTY)

Netflix is urgent pause on password sharing – with subscribers who wish to proceed splitting the price with family and friends by sharing their login particulars now compelled to pay an additional £4.99 per individual!

It's a good distance away from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings saying that clients who share their Netflix account data had been “a constructive factor" during the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas back in 2016. At the time, Hastings said that it makes sense for customers to share their username and password with their children – even if they don't live at home.

“As kids move on in their life, they like to have control of their life, and as they have an income, we see them separately subscribe. It really hasn’t been a problem,” Hastings said.

Well, times have really changed.

It seems that Netflix was a little disappointed with the rate of people who choose to ditch their parents' subscription – or friends', roommates', or ex-partners' account – and switch to their own subscription, which starts from £4.99 per month for the most affordable advert-supported tier and rises to £15.99 per month for access to 4K Ultra HD picture quality and other perks.

Netflix has changed its stance since it last addressed password-sharing publicly (Image: NETFLIX)

Netflix is issuing emails to millions of subscribers in the UK, requesting them to set a "residence deal with" for their account. This should be the primary residence for the account-holder, likely the same as their billing address.

This allows Netflix to charge an extra £4.99 for every person who logs into the account from outside of that "residence deal with". That extra fee is per month too, so for all account holders who’ve dished their logins out in the past, it can quickly creep up. 

Streaming services that still allow users to share accounts with other households

Netflix has a string of hit shows that remain exclusive to the platform, so those who want to binge-watch the latest episodes of Stranger Things, The Witcher, Bridgerton, The Watcher, The Crown, You, Squid Game, and Lupin to name a few, will need to stay subscribed to the streamer. However, the Netflix catalogue is also bolstered by a number of syndicated shows, like The IT Crowd, The Office, and Friends, which could switch to another platform in the future.

With everything getting more expensive, the crackdown on password sharing couldn't have come at a worse time.

To make matters worse for Netflix, rival streaming platforms have made it very clear that there's no issue with sharing your account details with a few friends or family members so you can all watch together.

For example, Prime Video offers a 30-day free trial to binge-watch its best exclusive series at no cost.

What should you watch on Prime Video?

Clarkson's Farm set viewing records when it launched on Prime Video (Image: AMAZON STUDIOS)

From hit series like Clarkson's Farm, The Rings of Power, and The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel to exclusive Hollywood films like Shotgun Wedding, doc-film Thirteen Lives, and Academy Award-winning Sound of Metal ...Amazon has quietly built a vast library of content.

Famously, the brand poached the ex-Top Gear trio Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond to launch The Grand Tour after they parted ways with the BBC. The most recent episode launched a few weeks ago and follows Clarkson, Hammond and May as they drive from Poland to Lake Bled in Slovenia ...with all of the usual antics you'd expect from the petrolheads.

Elsewhere, Amazon has a feverishly-anticipated second series of Good Omens scheduled to launch this summer, as well as more episodes of The Wheels Of Time, The Boys, and Lord of the Rings: The Rings Of Power in the pipeline.

Don’t want to pay after the trial? Don't worry; you can leave for free without paying a penny!

If you do decide to stick around, subscriptions for the video streamer start from £5.99. It's also included in the £8.99 per month (or £95 per year) Amazon Prime membership, which also bundles next-day delivery of thousands of items from Amazon, music and podcast streaming from Amazon Music Unlimited, unlimited free photo backup and more.

Of course, as the name suggests, all Prime Video subscribers, on the £8.99 plan, will get access to Amazon’s range of sales throughout the year, including the imminent Prime Day sale. The retailer is set to slash its prices across its site this July 11 and 12, and users with a Prime Video account will get front-row access to the deals.

As kids move on in their life, they like to have control of their life, and as they have an income, we see them separately subscribe. It really hasn’t been a problem

If you do decide to make the official switch over to Prime Video, Amazon lets you watch across four households under the same single subscription. This is thanks to its "family sharing" tool, where users can add people to their accounts - and no you don’t have to live at the same address!

Unlike Netflix, Amazon doesn't charge extra for picture quality either, with all accounts able to stream in up to 4K Ultra HD quality if their broadband speed can handle it.

Likewise, Disney+ allows subscribers to watch across four households with a single subscription. It currently doesn't offer multiple subscription tiers, with picture quality reserved for those who pay the highest monthly cost. Instead, everyone can stream content in up to 4K Ultra HD from Marvel Studios, National Geographic, the Star Wars universe, 20th Century Fox, Pixar, as well as the classic Walt Disney animations that the brand is best known for.

Unfortunately, the Disney Plus free trial has been ditched, so you will want to show to Amazon if you wish to watch totally free after you ditch your Netflix subscription.

Sky lets its subscribers add as many as six units underneath their very own account, so you may hand out particulars to family and friends on the Sky Go App with out being charged further. The similar goes for Apple TV+ with its ‘family sharing feature’.

Disney Plus subscribers can create as much as six profiles underneath one account, however it's restricted to streaming on 4 units at one time. Depending on the dimensions of your loved ones you'll have to combat for a timeslot right here, however it's doable.

Lastly, Paramount Plus is one other versatile streaming website, that permits account holders so as to add one other two folks underneath the identical membership, and watch on three units at anybody time.