Nadine Dorries asks if she's 'allowed to do that' after saying she shares Netflix with four other people

The culture secretary has been doing her job and widening access to culture - but just not in the way you might think.

Nadine Dorries told a select committee yesterday that she has shares her Netflix account with her relatives, and that is not exactly allowed by the platform.

“I’ve always thought it’s [an] incredibly generous system that it has, if you have an account, of allowing other people access," she said. "I mean, my mum has access to my account, my kids do. I have Netflix, but there are four other people who can use my Netflix account in different parts of the country.”

Dorries was then apparently told by Sarah Healey, the department’s permanent secretary, that password sharing was not allowed on the service.

"Am I not supposed to do that?" Dorries asked, laughing.

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Not really. Netflix terms and conditions state users must live together to share access to a paid-for account.

In April Netflix hinted it will crack down on households sharing passwords as the number of households using the streaming service fell by 200,000 in the first three months of the year.

The streaming giant estimates more than 100 million households watch the service for free using shared passwords and in Chile, Costa Rica and Peru account holders already must pay to add user profiles for people outside their household.

Elsewhere in the meeting Dorries shared her less than flattering take on Channel 4 News amid plans to privatisation the broadcaster. "It's edgy. I’m not going to justify a news programme whose news anchor went out shouting obscenities about the Conservative party,” she said. “So, you know, they don’t do themselves any favours sometimes, the news programme.”

She also claimed 96 per cent of consultation responses support the privatisation of Channel 4. SNP MP John Nicolson pointed out that she got it the wrong way round and 96 per cent are against selling the broadcaster.

As for her Netflix misdemenour, we've contacted to the platform to see what they make of it.

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