Disney+ Could Be the Next Streamer to Crackdown on Password Sharing

Password sharing has provided many of us and our families and friends access to streaming services for years, but now the streamers are on to us. Following Netflix’s move to end shared accounts earlier this year, Disney+ appears to be the next to look at a password-sharing crackdown.

In Disney’s most recent quarterly earnings call, CEO Bob Iger laid out some of the tactics the company would be taking to increase paying subscribers on their platform.

In the U.S., this has included increasing the price of Disney+ Premium from US$10.99 to $13. It’s unconfirmed whether this price increase will also impact Australian subscribers. If so, this would be the second increase in less than a year.

Disney also has an ad-supported subscription tier available in the U.S., and it made clear its plans to expand this to other territories as well. This will begin in Europe and Canada starting November 1, and it’s possible we’ll see this in Australia in the future as well.

Finally, Iger also pointed to a crackdown on password sharing on Disney+.

“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 and our sharing policies. And we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024,” Iger said during the call (as per IGN).

It’s unclear how exactly Disney+ plans to implement this, but it’s possible it will be in a similar method to Netflix that allows subscribers to pay an extra fee to add additional members to their account.

Having run the numbers, it is ultimately cheaper to add extra members to your Netflix account, rather than signing everyone up to a new one, but it is still an unwanted added cost for all involved – particularly during this cost of living crisis.

To maintain subscribers, Disney did point to its range of exciting content coming down the pipe, which includes a number of new Marvel and Star Wars series.