Disney+ will restrict password sharing in Canada starting November 1st. Subscribers in the region received an email saying they would soon be banned from sharing accounts with people outside their “household.” In this context, a home is a device associated with the primary personal address used by people living in the same residence. The announcement isn’t very clear, so I’m under the impression that as long as an outsider is logged in at the primary account holder’s residence, they can become a “family” member? There are no details yet on how Disney plans to enforce the policy, but it promises it will always monitor account activity to see if people are complying with the policy.
In fact, if Disney+ realizes or believes its users are breaking the rules, access to the streaming platform could be limited or terminated entirely.”You will be responsible for any use of your account by your household, including compliance with this section,” the new agreement reads (via moving syrup). During last month’s Q3 2023 earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that his team was aware that a “significant number” of users had been sharing passwords with friends and family and that the company had Monitor the “technical capabilities” of these users. At the time, he hinted that the crackdown could begin sometime in 2024, but now it looks like Disney+ has been a little too hasty.
Interestingly, a line on the agreement—”unless your service tier permits otherwise”—suggests that some Disney+ tiers may let you share your password. Of course, this will be a more expensive tier, and I’m guessing it works similarly to Netflix’s new policy of allowing users to add additional memberships to their account for a higher monthly subscription fee. The latter was one of the first major streaming platforms to start cracking down on account sharing by tracking IP addresses and requesting verification codes every 31 days. At this time, it’s unclear whether Disney+ will follow the same approach and what new subscription plans it might launch. Iger’s biggest concern, however, is how many people are willing to become new subscribers and increase revenue for the company once they’ve been removed from someone else’s Disney+ account?
Despite the initial backlash, the password-sharing crackdown appears to be working for Netflix, with the company reporting an increase of 6 million new subscriptions in July, bringing the total number of subscribers to 238 million. Disney+, meanwhile, has been struggling to maintain its numbers, especially the Disney+ Hotstar segment, which saw its subscriber count drop by 12.5 million from April to June, from 52.9 million to 40.4 million. The decline is mainly due to the platform ceding the rights to live IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket to Viacom18 until 2027. Another contributing factor is Disney+ Hotstar removing all HBO content, which has caused a lot of concern on the internet (including me) to question whether the subscription is still worth it.
Svlook
