Well, it's finally happening. After months of predicting when the Disney Plus password crackdown would begin, we finally know when it will: September 2024.
Announced by Disney CEO Bob Iger during the entertainment giant's Q3 2024 earnings call (thanks to The Motley Fool for the transcribed quote below), you'll no longer be able to use your family member or friends' Disney Plus account for free from next month – for anyone reading at the time of writing, anyway – onwards.
"We started our password-sharing initiative in June," Iger told stakeholders on the call. "That kicks in, in earnest, in September."
Initially, Disney said it would forbid account sharing in June, but it turns out there were many of us who weren't affected because only select countries were impacted by the mid-2024 crackdown (the US was not one of them). Now, though, the rest of Disney Plus' global fanbase will be stopped from sharing accounts between households. Well, unless the primary account holder adds you as an extra member on their monthly or yearly subscription, which will force them (or, rather, you) to stump up an extra fee that's yet to be revealed.
Why is Disney cracking down on account sharing?
There's one major reason: money. By cracking down on password sharing between households, non-primary account holders will be forced to do one of two things: sign up for their own account, or ask their family member or friend to fork out for the Extra Member feature that was unveiled in February so they can continue to watch the best Disney Plus movies and best Disney Plus shows in a different residential building.
From a business perspective, Disney's decision to prevent unsolicited password sharing makes sense. It needs to make cash to appease not only appease its shareholders, but also make new films and TV series, and pay its employees. And, with Netflix enjoying a huge boost to its user base after the streaming giant implemented its own password crackdown in May 2023, Disney wants a slice of the action, especially as it attempts to rein in its main rival from a subscriber standpoint.
Unfortunately, such costs are inevitably passed onto consumers. But, like Netflix, Disney has a couple of workarounds that it hopes will appease consumers who'll be annoyed about the impending password crackdown. For one, in late 2023, it introduced an ad-supported tier for those working to a tight budget – you can read our Disney Plus price guide for more details on how much its various subscriptions cost. The entertainment behemoth also recently teamed up with Hulu and Max to create a new streaming bundle that'll save you money in the long run as you won't be paying for three separate subscriptions. Disney, then, will claim it's doing right by customers by offering these cheaper alternatives.
A stream of infuriating decisions and price hikes
Even so, its forthcoming password crackdown doesn't sit right with me. Admittedly, I'm in the privileged position of being able to request free press screeners for Disney Plus-branded content, and receive invites to attend press screenings for the company's lineup of theatre-exclusive new movies, such as those produced by Marvel, Pixar, and 20th Century Studios. So, as a UK resident, this account sharing clampdown, coupled with yesterday's (August 6) news that Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN are all getting price hikes in the US, won't impact me as much as it will others.
That doesn't mean, though, that I don't think it's right. Once Disney Plus' monthly and yearly fees are jacked up again stateside in mid-October, it'll have effectively doubled in price in just four years. Frankly, that's a smack in the face for hard-working people who, after a long day at their jobs, simply want to come home and stream the next great TV show or movie – with their family, friends, partner, or kids – on a platform without paying through the nose. Soon, you won't be able to share your account with same individuals, in a different household, without parting with more cash, either, which makes things even frustrating.
As Iger himself noted as part of Disney's substantial Q3 2024 executive statement, a movie like Deadpool and Wolverine can make Disney almost $900 million is less than two weeks, so it's not short of cash. And yet, it has the nerve to tell the very people who spend their hard-earned cash on its films and TV shows that it'll prevent them from account sharing in the near future. Oh, and you'll have to pay even more every month for the privilege of streaming its so-called unrivalled content soon, too. Give me a break.
