If you’ve been freeloading off your friend’s Disney Plus account, we’ve got some bad news for you.
From June, the streaming service will launch its first crackdown on password sharing, Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed.
Speaking in an interview with CNBC, Mr Iger said that the company would soon be ‘launching our first real foray into password sharing.’
Subscribers will be required to pay for additional members outside of their household, although Disney is yet to confirm how much this will cost.
This crackdown will begin in ‘just a few countries’ but will soon grow to a full rollout in September.
Disney Plus will begin its crackdown on password sharing from June, rolling out more widely in September later this year
Disney Plus’ terms of service state that a subscription can only be used within a ‘household’, which refers to all the people living at the primary residence.
In reality, passwords are frequently shared among friends and family well beyond Disney’s definition of a household.
Disney previously suggested a crackdown was imminent in February when subscribers were sent an email letting them know that the terms of service were changing to make password sharing harder.
Speaking on an earnings call at the time, Disney’s chief financial officer Hugh Johnston said: ‘Later this calendar year, account holders who want to allow access to individuals from outside their household will be able to add them to their accounts for an additional fee.’
However, it remains unclear how much this additional fee will, or how Disney will monitor whether a user is from the primary household or not.
MailOnline has contacted Disney for further clarification on how the password sharing crackdown will be enforced.
Disney’s announcement follows Netflix’s crackdown on password sharing, which began in 2023.
Disney CEO Bob Iger (pictured) confirmed the dates from which subscribers will need to pay to add members from outside their household
Netflix rolled out paid sharing which gives users the option to buy ‘extra member slots’ for £4.99 a month.
And, while the crackdown might have been inconvenient for many, the change helped Netflix add 13 million new subscribers by the end of 2023.
Mr Iger has previously promised that Disney’s streaming service will turn a profit by the end of this year, and stopping password sharing could be a big step towards this goal.
In the interview, Mr Iger also expressed great admiration for how Netflix was managed, saying: ‘Netflix is the gold standard in streaming, they’ve done a phenomenal job in a lot of different directions.’
Disney Plus has been boosted by big hits like The Bear (pictured) but has faced big losses due to its significant investments in new content. Disney may be hoping that stopping password sharing will help it turn a profit
This isn’t the first time Disney emulated one of Netflix’s innovations.
In November last year, Disney Plus followed Netflix in introducing pricing ‘tiers’ with different levels of subscription.
Disney Plus introduced a ‘Standard’ tier which offers a lower price for the inclusion of adverts as well as an ad-free ‘Premium’ subscription at more than twice the price.
Subscribers in the UK can also access a slightly more expensive ad-free standard tier which doesn’t offer the ultra-HD quality of the premium tier.
In the US, Disney Plus offers bundled subscriptions which include access to Hulu and ESPN sports.
Customers can choose between a combination of subscriptions with or without adverts for all three of the streaming services.
