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Netflix user profiles now let you share your account for free

Netflix user profiles now allow you to share your account with someone else while keeping your viewing and theirs separate.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
Expertise Films, TV, Movies, Television, Technology
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

An Englishman's home is his castle, and so is a film fan's Netflix account. There's nothing worse than your other half pinching your laptop or tablet for a marathon of trash-watching, thus royally scrambling your recommendations -- or worse, telling your Facebook friends you spent the whole weekend watching My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.

But those days are over thanks to the arrival of user profiles today, allowing you to share your account with someone else while keeping your viewing and theirs separate.

Up to five people can share one account, with each individual user getting their own recommendations based on what they've watched and rated. And each individual profile links to a different Facebook profile, so each user can get picks from their friends and share their own viewing habits.

Profiles will be available to British Netflix users over the next few days on most devices, including the iPad, iPhone, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Apple TV, newer Smart TVs and Blu-Ray players, and online. Android and Nintendo will follow soon.

There're no extra charge for the extra users; Netflix is clearly more interested in serving people who quite reasonably share their tablet with family or roommates rather than getting worked up about locking out potential abusers giving their password to all their mates. Which is known as 'hipster cable', by the way.

A recent study found that you need both Netflix and LoveFilm to get your hands on a decent number of new films and TV. In the streaming scrap over films and TV shows, LoveFilm has snatched The Walking Dead away from Netflix, but Netflix has secured newBreaking Bad episodes the day after they're is aired in the US.

But possibly trumping both, Sky is offering a copper-bottomed bargain on new Sky Movies releases, charging just £2.50 a month for Now TV.

Do you share your Netflix account, or is another service much better? Can other companies learn from Netflix's relaxed attitude to sharing? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.