Disney Plus' password-sharing crackdown begins in June
Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that the company will start implementing new rules to prevent users from sharing their accounts with other people. Disney Plus' password-sharing crackdown will begin in June.
This is not a surprise move, the company has been planning this since last year. Disney Plus subscribers in Canada were the first to be impacted by the change, which was announced in November. Earlier in January this year, Disney Plus users in the U.S. were also informed about some changes to its terms of service. This included rules about not sharing log-in credentials with other users outside their households. While the change initially applied to new users, the rules came into effect in March for all users.
Disney Plus' password-sharing crackdown will start in June
The Verge reports that Hugh Johnston, Disney’s chief financial officer, had revealed during an earnings call in February that users who were sharing an account would be asked to sign up for their own subscription. He had also mentioned that subscribers would have an option to add other members for an additional fee.
And now, more information has surfaced about Disney Plus' password-sharing restrictions. Iger told CNBC in an interview that the initial password-sharing crackdown would begin in June 2024. It is expected to grow significantly before the full rollout for all users, which is targeted for September.
Disney Plus Plans
Let's take a look at Disney's streaming plans. Disney Plus has two primary plans. The cheapest one is called Disney+ Basic, it is an ad-supported subscription that costs $7.99 per month. The other plan, Disney+ Premium costs $13.99/month, and offers an ad-free experience, along with unlimited downloads on up to 10 devices.
Disney recently started offering Hulu in its Bundle Plans to attract more users to the service. The Disney Bundle Duo Basic plan with ads is available for $9.99 per month, while the ad-free Disney Bundle Duo Premium costs $19.99/month. Sports fans have another option, which is the Disney Bundle Trio Basic bundle that costs $14.99/month, and includes ESPN+ along with Disney+ and Hulu, with advertisements. Users will need to shell out $24.99/month to get rid of ads in the Disney Bundle Trio Premium bundle.
Streaming services have become costlier over the past year or so, with multiple price hikes. The emergence of ads in services is also quite problematic. Netflix was the first streaming service to crackdown on password sharing among its users. While the move was expected by analysts to backfire, to everyone's surprise it proved to be remarkably successful. As of January 2024, Netflix's ad-supported plan has amassed over 23 Million Monthly Users. Is it really surprising that Disney wants a taste of that success? It's not good for consumer's wallets, but was probably an inevitable change from a business' perspective. Iger acknowledged that Netflix was the gold standard in streaming, and that Disney's position of No.2 was not really a problem.
I think it is safe to expect Disney to offer an extra member fee similar to what Netflix does, which costs $7.99 per month for the Standard and Premium plans, while keeping the Disney+ Basic plan's price the same to ask users to sign up for their own account.
Do you use Disney+?
I notice Amazon has drastically cut down on the DVD/BluRay discs offering and is trying to persuade users to switch to Amazon Prime to stream the latest offerings instead. But it’s way too expensive and adorned with ads as well and worse still it’s country specific.
But to prompt users to sign up Amazon has increased their delivery charges astronomically now whereby the cost of importing an English language DVD from Amazon UK has risen to £10,57 for a single disc. I don’t know how they justify that amount especially when Marketplace sellers still charge the old Amazon rate which was £2,79 regardless of how many discs you purchased.
As for streaming, I don’t do that at all regardless of who’s doing it and prefer to buy DVDs which I can watch anytime I want and without ads puctuating the content all the time.
But if a company is going to crack down on password sharing then users should wean themselves off streaming altogether and buy DVD or BluRay media instead.
Pirates don’t need to go on vacation. They get all the arrr and arrr they need at work.
Blimey! The lily-livered Cable 2.0 companies are following each other across the enshittifiyng land slopes. Pilfering your paying customers is good for doubloons. Keep on bilge-sucking these scurvy dog dry.
I had an old friend recently contact me regarding some tips and pointers to rip his collection of discs as well as running a local Plex for himself and his wife. I must say it was a little out of left field but not completely as he was always dissatisfied with streaming services based on their quality and also the latest steps to extort more money out of it’s consumers.
He was an early adopter to netflix and stated that it became absolutely untenable when everyone decided they would make their own service which I agree with but as far as I am concerned it was dead in the water the moment it started as things can just as easily be taken away too.
There are similar issues now facing the gaming industry too regarding paid for items being taken away as the claims are that you do not own the purchase but just the license. As I have said before, they are nothing more than glorified bookmarks really.
Account sharing restrictions can be overcome and quite easily too but at the end of the day I would sooner see the entire system collapse on its own failures than see it held up by band aid solutions. The truth is that these media companies are always going to be greedy. There are simply too many palms to grease in order for the entire sham to carry on. It’s a case of inflated ego’s and huge profits from cast all the way up to the very top. I would not say crew because some of them are paid very poorly but that is all part of the exploitation in order to keep the rich …well… rich and fat.
Piracy will always be king no matter what because beyond it being free the simple availability that operates without and borders and restrictions. Geo restrictions are also one of the many reasons why services suck. The fewer positives these services offer the consumer the more people they will disgruntle. It’s not even about piracy at that point its about consumers not getting what they paid for and they will have nobody but themselves to blame.
My friend for example has mentioned that there is nothing good on any of them anyway and he would rather watch what he has gathered over the years and enjoy that. If he needs to he will buy a blu-ray or 4K UHD and rip it to a drive and watch it through Plex (later moving to Jellyfin at a later time. My suggestion to use Jellyfin).
People refer the entire situations as “enshitification” these days and that is probably more accurate than I care to think. Customers are always the first to suffer.
I am more of a observer than anything else. I do not participate in subscription services or media piracy. If I like something I will buy it physically but honestly there has been nothing worth buying for several years now and that seems to be a continuing trend.
Once physical media is gone then they have no hope of ever getting any money out of people like me at all. If they think piracy is bad now the worst of times is yet for them to come. Mark my words people will not be pushed too far without pushing back collectively and severely.
Man imagine paying for streaming and actually still getting ads. Must be nice to be American and think it’s acceptable to get advertisement on things you paid for.
Like think about it, you’re paying for access to these shows and yet you’re still being treated like you’re using it for free.
Even YouTube has the decency to remove ads at its lowest paid tier.
+1
Welp, its back ripping the blue-ray/dvd collection from my parents it is then and self-hosting them onto my NAS.
Nice comments indeed.
They can walk the plank. I have been sailing for 35 years and never stopped.
This is the way…