Following the news that Netflix has had huge success launching a crackdown on password sharing, with a huge boost in subscribers, it should come as no surprise that Disney is looking to do the same.

During the latest quarterly investors call, Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced they will also be implementing a major crackdown on password sharing in 2024.    He stated:

I’d also like to note that 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 on our sharing policies, and we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.

It’s unclear what he meant by offering options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with their friends and family, this could follow Netflix’s approach about adding more profiles or available screens onto an account for an additional fee.

He also went into a little more detail later:

Regarding password sharing, we are — we already have the technical capability to monitor much of this. And I’m not going to give you a specific number, except to say that it’s significant. What we don’t know, of course, is as we get to work on this, how much of the password sharing as we basically eliminate it will convert to growth in subs. Obviously, we believe there will be some, but we’re not speculating.

What we are saying, though, is that in calendar ’24, we’re going to get at this issue. And so while it is likely you’ll see some impact in calendar ’24, it’s possible that we won’t be complete or 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.

Disney is looking to make its streaming platforms more profitable and now views the sharing of passwords to be a “priority”, and in “calendar 2024, we’re going to get at this issue.”

Last month, it was revealed that Disney would begin cracking down on sharing passwords in India, where it will enforce the policy of how many screens can stream Disney+ at once.  The Premium tier allows for 4 screens to be streamed at once, while the Super tier, allows for two.  Up until recently, Disney hasn’t been implementing these rules.  This is likely going to be one of the testing grounds for the new crackdown, as streaming platforms tend to start testing in one country, before it goes global.

Disney is also aggressively making its ad-supported tier more appealing to users, keeping the price as low as possible, while increasing the price on the ad-free tiers.

What do you think of Disney+ cracking down on password sharing?

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

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