Disney Plus users left unimpressed at password crackdown announcement | indy100

Disney's Netflix-Like Password Sharing Crackdown Begins This June As Bob Iger Tries …

Benzinga / VideoElephant

Disney's CEO Bob Iger said in an interview on CNBC, that the company plans on "launching our first real foray into password sharing" in June.

Disney Plus already rolled out new terms at the beginning of the year to prevent subscribers from sharing their passwords. Although these terms never stated how they identify password-sharing, simply saying the streamer can "analyse the use of your account to determine compliance."

But that's all about to change, with those suspected of using a person's account outside of their household receiving a prompt to sign up for their own subscription come Summer.

Disney's chief financial officer, Hugh Johnston, confirmed in an earnings call in February that current subscribers will be able to add members outside their household to their account for an "additional fee." The piece of this fee has not yet been confirmed.

Disney is also using a merger with Hulu as a way to crack down on password-sharing. The combined app, which launched last month, also served as an attempt to pull more subscribers towards the streaming bundle.

But more importantly, Disney can merge your identity on Disney Plus and Hulu so that who you are on one app translates to every other app too, which helps Disney identify who is accessing the content through password sharing.

Unsurprisingly, many weren't happy to hear of the new rules.

Many pointed out that often families do not live in the same household, but that shouldn't mean they have to pay extra.

I wish these streaming services would realize that not every family lives in the same household
— (@)

Do streaking services realise that university students are some of their biggest audiences and by nature they won't always be in the same house as the account holder?
— (@)

Whilst some suggested people start to cancel their subscriptions now to send a message:

idk, i think we should collectively cancel our subscriptions & see if they keep playing like this lol
— (@)

thank you to these streamers for making it easier and easier to choose which subscriptions to cancel \ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb\ud83d\ude4f\ud83c\udffb
— (@)

Netflix became the first streaming service to begin a crackdown on password sharing in 2023. The streaming giant began to charge users an extra $7.99 per month to add an extra viewer outside their household.

Sign upto our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel