Daily US sign-ups for Netflix have jumped in the first few days after the streaming giant’s password-sharing crackdown came into effect on 23 May, data from research firm Antenna showed.

Looking for new ways to make money in a saturating market and a tough economy, Netflix moved to regulate the sharing of account passwords with friends and family — a drastic turnaround for a company that had once tweeted “Love is sharing a password”.

Netflix had estimated that more than a 100 million households had supplied their login credentials to people outside their homes. Under the new rules, US users can add a member outside of their homes for an additional fee of $8/month.

Its calculations seem to have paid off as the company recorded nearly 100 000 daily sign-ups on both 26 and 27 May, according to Antenna.

Netflix, which has expanded its crackdown to more than 100 other countries, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The streaming video pioneer saw its four largest days of US user acquisition after the change came into effect in the four-and-a-half years that Antenna has been covering the company.

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The recent spike also exceeded levels seen during the initial US Covid-19 lockdowns in March and April 2020, according to Antenna, which sources data from third-party data collectors that track online purchase receipts, credit, debit and banking data details with permissions. — Chavi Mehta, (c) 2023 Reuters