Disney+ password sharing crackdown begins in June
The days of sharing your Disney+ password with your friends and family is coming to an end
🤚 Disney will stop users from password sharing in June
📆 A wider rollout is expected in September
🔒 The move follows Netflix’s decision to stop password-sharing
📈 Disney hopes it will result in new subscribers and an increase in revenue
Disney is set to crack down on password sharing in some countries in June, with a wider rollout taking place in September.
Disney CEO Bob Iger told CNBC that it will begin enforcing its policy to stop customers from impersonating someone else by using their username and password, which means you’ll no longer be able to log into your friends and family’s accounts across multiple devices in different locations.
The password crackdown follows Netflix’s decision to stop users from sharing login details, which resulted in a significant jump in signups and an increase in revenue. Netflix announced it had gained 5.9 million new subscribers in Q2 2023 after the move.
“The cancel reaction was low and while we’re still in the early stages of monetization, we’re seeing healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships as well as the uptake of our extra member feature,” Netflix said in a letter to investors.
Disney will be hoping its policy will reap the same results, and it already began limiting how customers can share account details on its other streaming service, Hulu, on March 14.
“Netflix is the gold standard in streaming,” Iger said in an interview with CNBC. “They’ve done a phenomenal job and a lot of different directions. I actually have very, very high regard for what they’ve accomplished. If we can only accomplish what they’ve accomplished, that would be great.”
It appears Iger and Disney shareholders think the move will be beneficial to the streaming platform, which is still yet to turn a profit. “We certainly have established this as a real priority,” Iger said on Disney’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call. “We actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.”
Disney announced it was going to crack down on password sharing in August last year. “We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” Iger said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call (thanks, The Wrap). “Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies. And we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”
Disney cut dozens of TV shows and movies in a bid to reduce costs. One of the shows that was removed was Willow, which one of the writers called “absolutely cruel” on X.
We’ll have to wait and see whether Disney’s move to stop password sharing pays off like it did for Netflix, but ultimately it’s the quality of the shows the platform can provide subscribers that will dictate its success. The company has seen mixed success with its Star Wars adaptions, with the next entry The Acolyte becoming one of the most disliked trailers on YouTube.