YouTube follows Netflix: Password sharing is now banned outside your house

YouTube Netflix seems to be taking the way. The video-sharing platform is allegedly breaking on sharing passwords by restricting users from reaching YouTube premium outside their home, much as Netflix has been doing for months. YouTube premium family has recently become popular as it provides the ability to advertise-free video, music streaming and plan through YouTube music. Many user are sharing their passwords to save membership costs for friends and relatives. But this exercise is clearly damaging the revenue of YouTube.

According to a report by Android Police, YouTube has started sending emails to users who are seen reaching the premium family plans while not living in the same house. One such email, titled “Your YouTube premium family membership will be stopped”, reads:

“All members need to live in the same house as family manager for your YouTube premium family membership. It seems that you cannot be in the same house like your family manager, and your membership will stop in 14 days. Once your reach stops, you will stay in your family group and now you will be able to see YouTube with ads, but you will not be beneficial.”

This email makes it clear that the YouTube family plan is tightening its verification procedures for eligibility. In particular, the platform already does a “electronic check-in” to ensure that a family plans at the same address to ensure that every 30 days. In the past, failing this check-in was really no result, but YouTube is now starting to apply the rules more strictly.

The YouTube premium family plan priced at Rs 299 per month in India allows five additional members to enjoy advertising YouTube and YouTube music. However, this catch has always been that all members should live at the same address. While this requirement has been present for a long time, YouTube was rather loose to implement it, allowing friends and distant relatives to be part of the same plan. The new Crackdown is indicating that Google is sharing membership and sharing more seriously.

Interestingly, this enforcement comes only a few weeks after starting a Testing of the two-person premium scheme of YouTube, which can serve as a middle ground for joints or flatmets that do not fit in the “domestic” definition of the “family”. YouTube seems to follow the playbook of Netflix, making the family plan more restrictive, offering small, cheap options – discourages wide sharing by extending users to valid payment levels.

In particular, the report of canceled premium access is scattered for now. In addition to isolated posts and a handful of user complaints on reddit, the cracks do not seem wider yet. But we can send this notice to more users soon. Android police also noted that flagged users will mean the option to contact Google through a support form for “confirming eligibility and maintains”.