Disney+ to Crackdown on Password Sharing
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney+ has announced that they will begin to crack down on password sharing starting next month.
These restrictions will begin in Canada on November 1. The streaming service announced, “Unless otherwise permitted by your service tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household.”
“’Household’ covers the collection of devices associated with a subscriber’s primary residence and used by the individuals who live there, per the streamer’s help center,” Pix 11 reported.
Disney also warned, “we may limit or terminate access to the service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this agreement” if people continue to violate the terms.
Disney+ may offer new paid options to those who want to share passwords.
The new restrictions are anticipated to come to the U.S. later this year.
On August 9 at the Disney quarterly earnings call, Disney chief Bob Iger expressed his plans to monetize password sharing.
“We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family. Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms on our sharing policies, and we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024,” he explained.
The company seems to be following Netflix, which rolled out a paid sharing program in May.
According to Netflix, “Account owners on a Standard or Premium plan in many countries can share Netflix with someone who doesn’t live with them by adding an extra member to their account. The account owner will need to purchase an extra member slot, then invite an extra member to use the extra member slot. The extra member must be activated in the same country where the account owner created their account.”
In addition to sharing restrictions, Disney+, Hulu and ESPN raised subscription prices as of October 1.
Variety reported, “Disney+ Premium (with no ads) increases to $13.99/month, up $3; Hulu without ads will also increase by $3 to $17.99/month; and ESPN+ will increase by one dollar, to $10.99/month.”
Movieguide® previously reported on Netflix’s password crackdown:
While many worried about what cracking down on password sharing would mean for Netflix, the change has resulted in millions of new subscription sign-ups.
Since limiting account users to those living in one household, Netflix has seen a significant rise in new member sign-ups, many of whom are opting for the new ad-tier subscription level. According to research group Antenna, around 23% of users who signed up in July chose the cheaper option.
“The company estimated that more than 100 million households had shared their log-in credentials with friends and family outside their homes. This has led analysts to expect that about 50 million users will ultimately create their own accounts,” Reuters reported.
In total, Netflix added 2.6 million new users in July, building on its already industry-dominant 238.39 million subscriber count. In June—the first full month since the password-sharing crackdown—just under 3.5 million new accounts signed up with the platform, more than doubling what the streaming service saw the previous month.
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