The days of friends passing around a Disney Plus password to watch the shows and movies available on the platform appear to be coming to an end. Disney CEO Bob Iger sat down for an interview with CNBC and said the company plans to start "launching our first real foray into password sharing" in June.
Disney already has rules regarding password sharing, which initially went into effect for new subscribers on January 25th and for existing members on March 14th. Those rules make it more difficult for users to access their accounts from multiple locations, which is a deterrent but not a perfect solution.
The password-sharing clampdown will initially be rolled out in "just a few countries in a few markets." Iger didn't say which counties and markets will see the new password-sharing option, but he did say that it would roll out to all subscribers by September.
When the new changes start, we expect Disney to let members add users out of their household for an additional fee, though the company hasn't said how much it'll be. Netflix charges an additional $7.99 for an extra viewer outside the main user's household. I'd expect Disney to stay in that same range to remain competitive. Disney could even try to undercut Netflix, but we'll have to wait until its new plan starts to find out for sure.
This comes shortly after Disney Plus and Hulu merged into one app. It's clear that Disney Plus wants to make money from its streaming service. Combining the content from two services into one is a great way to do that. Getting more users to pay for their own accounts is another way that has shown success for Netflix and could work well for Disney.
One way or the other, we know that Disney Plus will join the other streamers cracking down on password sharing. We don't know how much it'll cost or exactly how it'll work, but we know it's coming, which means that free ride on a friend's Disney Plus account will be coming to an end for most soon.
