Bad news for subscribers: Disney seems to be going down the same route Netflix went and will change its policies on password sharing.
There was a lot of uproar when Netflix announced they would be prohibiting password sharing, with many users deriding the streamer after it had encouraged sharing years ago. As the crackdown slowly rolled out to different regions, parents, significant others, and sneaky exes all around the globe found themselves cut off from the free Netflix subscription they once enjoyed.
Here’s the most infuriating thing about it though: it worked. At least according to Netflix themselves, they added six million paid subscribers after the password-sharing crackdown.
It seems now that Disney is going to go the same route. According to CEO Bob Iger, the Mouse will also be enforcing a password crackdown in the beginning of 2024.
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Disney is also going to limit password sharing
According to a report by Variety, Iger announced the plans during a quarterly earnings call. “We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” said the CEO. “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.”
Don’t get lost in the corporate vernacular. Basically, they’ll unveil new password-sharing policies later this year and will implement them in the next year. “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,” Iger added.
While Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown was inevitable here, there’s one big difference with Disney: the streamer here is officially Disney+ Hotstar, with FX and Hulu shows available on just one streamer. Whether that will make a difference to password-sharing policies is yet to be seen.
This announcement from the Disney CEO comes weeks after he blamed the ongoing strikes as “unrealistic”, a comment that many have criticised. Perhaps now with all the upcoming added revenue from subscribers, he can consider hearing out the artists.
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Bangkok
