After first being betrayed by Netflix, users will soon be disappointed in Disney+. The streaming platform announced that it plans to follow Netflix’s lead and crack down on password sharing by early next year.
With Netflix’s updated password sharing rules, users are unable to log into the same account unless they are under the same roof — forcing account holders to identify a household, effectively kicking out anyone logged into the same account outside of that home. This obviously leads to more people needing to sign up and pay for their own accounts, which Netflix also took advantage of by changing their pricing structure in specific regions.
The CEO of Disney+, Bob Iger, told reporters that they are “actively exploring ways to address account sharing,” but has not specifically stated exactly how they intend to do that. Iger did not precisely mention anything about changing the subscription prices for Disney+, either. He explained that the streaming platform “will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies” later this year, followed by “roll[ing] out tactics to drive monetization” next year.
Many users believe that Disney+ is unable to recognize users signing into someone else’s account, but Iger assures users that the platform indeed has the “technical capability” to monitor sign-in activity, and they have seen a “significant” amount of password sharing.
Iger also told reporters that “while it is likely you’ll see some impact in calendar 24, it’s possible that . . . the work will not be completed within the calendar year but we certainly have established this as a real priority, and we actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.”
Considering Disney rakes in tens of billions of dollars in revenue each year, it’s curious how much more they expect to grow. At least the good news for users is that it doesn’t seem like Disney+ will have their ducks in a row to even begin cracking down on password sharing until about May of 2024.