To function, devices with a particular account must be connected to the primary location of the account, Netflix reports on the Costa Rican help page. Devices that are not part of your primary location may be blocked from watching Netflix. Customers can set that primary location; by default, this is the household of the main user of the account.
If devices are consistently in use outside the main user’s Wi-Fi network, Netflix wants them to have their own accounts. This can be done by adding an ‘extra member’ to the account, a paid option to share the Netflix account outside one’s own household. That costs less than a regular subscription; in a test in various countries it was 3 dollars (2.73 euros) per month. The viewing history can be transferred to that new account. The main user of the account pays for this.
Netflix had already said it would slowly roll out the option to add paid members outside of one’s household on a country-by-country basis. Costa Rica seems to be the first country where this happens. The introduction is part of an action to prevent sharing accounts outside one’s own household without paying. It is still unknown when Netflix will implement the new restrictions in the Netherlands and Belgium.
