Netflix giveth on the one hand, and taketh away with the other, at least, that's how it feels with the announcement that its Basic with Ads streaming plan is getting a bump in video quality and that the crackdown on password sharing in the US will begin during Q2 of this year.
You don't need a calendar to figure out that this means that the Q2 date means sometime between today and June 20th, which means if you are someone who is sharing someone else's account then you should probably get cracking (sorry) on viewing your watch list.
So you want to watch Netflix but don't want to pay the full rate? You'll be able to carry on your viewing habits thanks to the new Paid Sharing feature will likely cost $5-$6 in the US. Those living in the same household as the account holder can carry on as normal because it seems that Netflix is using geolocation to determine where the moochers are accessing the account from.
On to the more pleasant news, Netflix's Basic with Ads plan is not only getting a video quality boost to 1080p but also the ability to stream to two devices simultaneously. Spain and Canada are the first to experience the expanded viewing experience with the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and South Korea joining in by the end of April.
In its earnings report, Netflix also announced that it is winding down its DVD business this year, with the final DVDs shipping out on September 29th. Well, it had a good run.
