What to Know Disney Password Sharing Crackdown
By Movieguide® Contributor
Disney+ has just announced that customers can no longer share their passwords with friends and family unless they add the “paid sharing program” feature to their subscription.
“Account holders who want to add someone outside of their Household to their Disney+ subscription will be able to do so with the Extra Member add-on. For example, in the U.S., an Extra Member profile will cost an additional $6.99 per month for Disney+ Basic subscriptions and $9.99 per month for Disney+ Premium subscriptions. Note that only one Extra Member slot is available per account,” The Walt Disney Company reported.
If a user doesn’t want to pay for the sharing program, then “as an alternative to Extra Member, people outside of your Household can sign up for their own subscription to watch Disney+. As the account holder, you can transfer an eligible profile to a new subscription or Extra Member to keep that profile’s Disney+ watch history and settings.”
The Disney+ Help Center tells users, “Disney+ will automatically detect and establish your Household based on your subscription activity, linked devices, and internet connection among other factors.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The crackdown on account sharing also comes ad Disney+ is set to raise prices on most of its plans next month, and with a number of high-profile premieres, including AGATHA ALL ALONG and the Disney+ debut on INSIDE OUT 2.”
This isn’t the first streaming platform that has cracked down on password sharing; Netflix has done the same.
Movieguide® reported:
“Your Netflix account is for you and the people you live with – your household,” Netflix said in an email to its U.S. customers. To share an account with someone living outside of the household, Netflix will now charge a $7.99 a month fee.
This change in business model is rolling out across Netflix worldwide, having already been tested in a few key markets. Since February, Netflix subscribers in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain have been disallowed from sharing accounts, requiring users outside of the household to pay for an additional account.
During its Q1 report, Netflix shared that the initial reaction in these countries with paid account sharing has been negative, with widespread cancellation of accounts occurring. However, the company points to the Canadian market where the subscriber base has grown, after an initial drop, since paid sharing has been launched.
“It’s very much like a price increase – we see an initial cancel reaction,” Netflix co-CEO, Greg Peters, said. “And then we build out of that, both in terms of members purchase that extra member facility for folks they want to share it with.”
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