This fall, NFL Sunday Ticket will launch on YouTube and YouTube TV. Now it seems that YoUTube TV has taken this moment to start more aggressively enforcing its password and account-sharing rules.
YouTube TV has always put limits on its account-sharing feature. YouTube TV clearly says it is only for people living in the home. So your family that live outside of the primary account location are not allowed to use the account-sharing feature of YouTube TV. You can use YouTube TV outside your home, but you are supposed to bring that device back to your home location every 90 days.
Now YouTube TV has started to crack down on people sharing their YouTube TV account with people living outside of their home. Over the last few weeks a growing number of people have reported their friends and family have woken up to error messages on YouTube TV. These messages inform them that they need to buy their own YouTube TV subscription or return to their home location to continue using YouTube TV.
YouTube TV has always had these rules, but in the past, they very loosely enforced them. Now though, they are more aggressively enforcing their rules. They are doing this by tracking users’ IP addresses and seeing what devices are outside of the home location for over 90 days.
YouTube TV joins a growing number of streaming services that are cracking down on account sharing. Netflix may have recently made headlines for its efforts to stop password sharing, but others are doing the same, if not so publicly.
Recently cord cutters have started to cut back on the number of streaming services they are paying for. This has resulted in declining subscriber numbers for some services. To help stop this or reserve it, they want users who share accounts to each get their own streaming service.
As long as your device returns to your home location every 90 days or so, you should not be affected by this change.