That popular workaround for sharing a YouTube Premium family plan with friends and relatives in different homes is now squarely in Google’s crosshairs. A new wave of enforcement has begun, with subscribers reporting they’ve received emails warning that their account access will be suspended. The ultimatum is clear: confirm all members live at the same address within 15 days, or lose your premium perks. And now that’s something you should watch out for, whether you plan to stream videos or listen to music with ads, both of which you can still do if the service is paused.
While the “same household” requirement has always been in the terms of service, this recent crackdown signals a major shift from passive policy to active practice. For anyone ignoring the notice, the consequence is a swift downgrade back to YouTube’s ad-supported tier, a jarring change for those used to ad-free viewing and offline downloads.
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A YouTube spokesperson told CNET, “Our family plan policy hasn’t changed and we are continuously enforcing it. You can learn more about the YouTube family plan here.”
On its support page, YouTube says that an account manager can add up to five family members in a household to their Premium membership. But, the post says, “Family members sharing a YouTube family plan must live in the same household as the family manager.” Groups can only be changed once every 12 months.
YouTube has been testing a two-household plan that would offer a discount for those who want to share, but that plan is not yet available in the US.
YouTube offers a one-month trial for its Premium and Music accounts, which cost $23 per month.
Subscription sharing crackdowns
YouTube joins other paid services that have started to enforce policies to cut down on the sharing of premium services.
Disney Plus and Netflix were among the services that began discouraging, and then actively blocking or restricting accounts they find are sharing passwords. Max joined them this year, introducing an $8 fee for those who want to share their account with one other person.
Similarly, Amazon is ending a program that allowed for sharing of its Prime service, requiring that those who don’t live at the same residence use their own paid Prime accounts for things like getting packages shipped free. Amazon’s Prime Invitee benefit-sharing program is ending Oct. 1.
The enforcement is meant to help recover revenue that these companies say they lose when people use someone else’s premium account instead of paying for their own.
“It’s not hard to understand why streaming services feel the need to crack down. After all, the revenue to spend on new content or an improved experience must come from somewhere,” says Carl Lepper, Senior Director of Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) Intelligence at JD Power.
“The calculation from streaming companies seems to be that limiting password sharing and account access will lead to more subscribers. You could argue the same about any sort of subscription service. It’s fairly intuitive. There’s a solid amount of evidence from media coverage that it works, at least initially,” Lepper says.
Does it work long-term? Lepper tells CNET that companies have to balance enforcing their policies without “ticking off” existing customers or denying potential customers from getting a chance to see what their service has to offer and potentially converting to their own account eventually.
Enforcement itself isn’t free, he points out. “Streamers themselves need to devote time and resources to enforcing such a policy,” Lepper says.