Netflix steps up its effort to get paid for account sharing

NFLX" target="_blank">Netflix (NFLX) has a plan to deal with rampant account sharing: a program that lets subscribers pay extra to share their account with people outside their household. 

The streaming giant introduced paid sharing in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain on Wednesday. It was previously rolled out in multiple markets in Latin America. 

While Netflix won’t say when paid sharing will come to other countries, some version of the plan is expected to be introduced in the U.S. in the next few weeks. Around one-third of Netflix's subscribers live in the U.S. and Canada. 

Netflix has more than 231 million paid subscribers in 190 countries. The Los Gatos, California-based company estimates that 100 million households are currently sharing their accounts with others, which impacts the company’s ability to invest in new programming.