First Netflix took the initiative to begin a massive password sharing crackdown. Now it looks like Disney will be initiating a password sharing crackdown of their own for Disney Plus.
CEO Bob Iger revealed as much during Disney’s third quarter earnings call. As noted by Variety, Iger believes this will be “an opportunity” in an effort “to help us grow our business.” Iger explains that this is because a “significant” number of Disney Plus subscribers share their passwords with individuals outside of their home.
“I’m not going to give you a specific number, except to say that it’s significant,” Iger begins. “What we don’t know, of course, is as we get to work on this, how much of the password sharing as we basically eliminate it will convert to growth in subs. Obviously, we believe there will be some, but we’re not speculating.”
He continued to note that Disney Plus plans to begin their password sharing crackdown as soon as 2024:
“What we are saying, though, is that in calendar ’24, we’re going to get at this issue. And so while it is likely you’ll see some impact in calendar ’24, it’s possible that we won’t be complete or the work will not be completed within the calendar year. But 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.”
Though they will apparently still include ways for “paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” as stated below:
“We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” Iger states. “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.”
Of course, Netflix‘s decision to crackdown on password sharing has been rather unpopularly-received by the average person. Yet Netflix themselves claim that their decision has paid off by boosting subscribers.
As such, it looks like Disney Plus is attempting to do the same. Though with their decision to increase prices, and at a time when streaming doesn’t seem to be doing as well as everyone thought during the COVID pandemic, we’ll have to see how well these plans work out.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates as we have them.