With companies looking to improve profits from streaming services, account sharing (aka password sharing) has quickly become one area that is being taken much more seriously.  For years, Netflix almost encouraged people to share their accounts with their friends and family, but then, when faced with its first-ever drop in subscribers, it turned its attention to clamping down on password sharing.   At first, Netflix started experimenting in select countries with technology to restrict people from logging on to accounts in different locations, before eventually rolling it out globally.  People who shared accounts were then prompted to either purchase add-on accounts or just simply sign up for their own accounts.

This move by Netflix has brought in millions of extra subscribers and it shouldn’t come as huge surprise to hear that other streaming services are going to be doing something similar.  And with Disney trying to increase its streaming business profitablity, it too is going to be clamping down on account sharing.

According to Reuters, Disney is planning on enforcing a policy on its Disney+ Hotstar app in India, where Premium users will only be able to login from just four devices at once and users on the cheaper Super tier, will be limited to just two devices.  This is being done to limit how much password sharing is being done within the country.  Disney+ Hotstar has been allowing up to as many as ten devices at once on a premium tier account.  The official website states when you sign up that only four devices can be logged in at once on a Premium tier and just two devices on a Super tier.

Testing has already began internally on limiting how many can login at once and there are plans to start implementing this later this year.  A source told Reuters, “Some people will be incentivised to buy” their own subscriptions with new restrictions in place.

Disney hasn’t been enforcing the device login policy in the hope that it would attract more subscribers, much like how Netflix wanted to get more people using the service, in the hope they would eventually buy their own accounts.  And Disney also didn’t enforce the four-device policy as it didn’t want to inconvenience premium users and had detected internally that only around 5% of its premium subscribers logged in from more than four devices.

But now, Disney is going to start enforcing this device policy on both the Premium and Super tiers, to make Disney+ Hotstar more profitable by forcing more people to subscribe.   While Disney+ Hotstar has over 50 million subscribers, it makes only one sixth of the average revenue per user when compared to a Disney+ subscriber from other countries.   Disney+ Hotstar has also recently lost millions of subscribers due to the loss of IPL cricket and enforcing this policy may help them recover more subscribers.

It’s unknown if Disney is going to be implenenting the device limit policy globally, but should it be successful in India, it is likely to be activated globally.  The four devices at once limit has been part of the Disney+ policy since it launched, but it hasn’t been enforcing it as strictly.

Reenforcing the device limit policy that users agreed to when they signed up, isn’t as strict as Netflix’s password sharing system, but it’s likely Disney and other streaming platforms are going to be looking into it more, following the success of Netflix’s plans.

Disney has also recently started exploring its options within India, such as selling assets or finding a joint venture partner.

Do you think Disney+ should enforce its device limit?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

View all posts