After months of waiting, Netflix has finally cracked down on password sharing, reports “Streaming” columnist NICK OVERALL, but what does it mean? 

MANY family members, friends, as well as plenty of ex-boyfriends and girlfriends will this week have found themselves kicked off the Netflix account they’ve for so long been sharing.

The streaming giant will now only allow each account to be used by one household.

For any additional households to use the account, members will have to pay for an additional subscription – an extra $7.99 a month.

But it doesn’t stop there. Users won’t be able to add extra households to their account if they’re on the cheapest two plans Netflix offers.

One extra household can be added on the second most expensive plan, and two can be added on the most expensive, which when added all up, comes out at around $40 a month.

Netflix subscribers were told the news in something of a blunt email.

“Hi [name]. Your Netflix account is for you and the people you live with – your household,” the company wrote in a letter to its many subscribers.

“We know you might have questions.”

You can say that again.

The reaction to the decision has been tempestuous to say the least.

“If you haven’t already cancelled this dead service, here’s your friendly reminder!,” said one enraged Twitter user.

“I’ve been a Netflix member since probably 2010. I never cancelled it, even with the price hikes. But I think this password sharing crackdown plan is the last straw. Not even with your family members? What was the point of profiles then?,” said another.

Netflix hopes that by abolishing account sharing they’ll be able to pull back declining revenue, but the move is expected to see the platform take a hit to their subscriber count, especially with advertising plans becoming more prolific. 

Foxtel’s streaming service Binge is now running ads for those not willing to fork out the cash for their premium option.

Every 10 minutes or so, subscribers will have their streaming interrupted in order to make room for the adverts.

In the days where advertising was a fixture of watching television, show writers would cleverly wrap their storytelling around ad breaks, often fitting the interruptions in between acts of their episodes in order to preserve drama or comedy.

Since major television shows went to streaming platforms, writers and producers became free of those constraints.

Now we’ve come full circle. The reintroduction of ads has left many shows as much worse off as a result.

Take the excellent final season of “Succession”, now streaming on Binge.

The placement of ad breaks in the show’s ultimate set of episodes seemingly have no rhyme nor reason, jarringly breaking the tension that the series is trying to build as it heads towards its long anticipated finale.

It looks like this model may become the norm. Other streaming companies now have their own advertising plans in the works.

Between a return of ads and a crackdown on password sharing, subscribers to streaming platforms are paying their monthly fees while losing many of the benefits that made that price so appealing in the first place.

Coupled with more and more streaming platforms hitting the market, which is spreading content choice more thin, the industry is heading down a very different road. Many internet users are now throwing up their hands, announcing they’ll go back to pirating movies and TV shows.

In an amusing development in this saga, rental video store company Blockbuster (remember them?) is getting in on the action here. Its official Twitter account tweeting: “A friendly reminder that when you used to rent videos from us we didn’t care who you shared it with… As long as you returned it on time. @netflix”

How times change.