Amid Booming Sales, Netflix Says it Will Create Family Plan

The day has come.

It turns out that the endless number of devices on which you could stream on one paying Netflix account will dwindle to no more than two. And now, Netflix has announced it will create a family plan that costs $11.99 for which customers can stream up to four devices for family, friends, exes or significant others.

The streaming service, which boasts 36 million users worldwide, said that tens of millions of users were watching the service with accounts they didn’t pay for. It became something of a legend in social circles, but Netflix says it has to stem the tide of freeloaders as it adjusts its business model, which includes the production of original series such as the critically acclaimed House of Cards

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If nothing else, the announcement comes as Netflix is positioned for a record year as result of several circumstances. Shares of the company rose 24 percent to $216.07, it announced in a sales call, and shares of the streaming media giant have rocketed 24% to $216.07.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the streaming giant revealed it has drawn a whopping 2 million new subscribers in the U.S. thanks to House of Cards, which stars the actor Kevin Spacey as a maniacal, vengeance-thirsty southern Congressman.

Variety reported this week that Netflix has surpassed HBO’s number of U.S. subscribers, a boon for producers looking to continue to produce original content. The company brought in $3 million in profit, but has a long way to go before it reaches HBO’s 115 million subscribers worldwide.

By creating the new business model, analysts say Netflix will almost certainly surpass that number next quarter.

“The launch of House of Cards provided a halo effect on our entire service,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells said in a letter to Netflix shareholders.