Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries admits she shares her Netflix password with four other households

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has admitted she shares her Netflix password with four other households across the country - in breach of the streaming giant's terms and conditions.

Ms Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire, said four other people, including her mother, had access to her account, despite the firm's terms saying that users must live together.

Her admission came just weeks after Netflix said that password sharing could be among the reasons for lower-than-expected quarterly figures.

Appearing before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, she described the current system for subscribers as “incredibly generous”.

She added: “My mum has access to my account, the kids do. I have Netflix but there are four other people who can use my Netflix account in different parts of the country.”

Laughing, she added: “Am I not supposed to do that?”

Last month, Netflix suffered its first subscriber loss in more than a decade, causing its shares to plunge 25% in extended trading.

Ms Dorries said a potential move by the streaming giant into advertising, as opposed to subscription alone, would further negatively impact public service broadcasters such as Channel 4, which the government intends to privatise.

The broadcaster has been publicly owned since its creation in 1982 by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, and is entirely funded by advertising.

Ms Dorries said: “I think for people to even try and paint a picture that Netflix is unsuccessful or struggling is probably slightly over-egging the pudding.

“Netflix has done what many businesses do.

“It has reached the point of market saturation, which is a good thing for Netflix but they are going to have to revise their business model, and they will probably revise it in a way that will make it much more difficult for public service broadcasters who rely on advertising revenue.”

Ms Dorries said the pool of advertising budget had “reduced considerably” in recent years and a platform such as Netflix would be another attractive prospect to advertisers and therefore competition for Channel 4.

Asked what she thinks about Channel 4 News, Ms Dorries said she “gets on really well” with presenter Cathy Newman and had been asked on a number of times in the last two weeks, although she had declined.