Disney to Crack Down on Password Sharing for Its Streaming Service

While many people share the same account for streaming services, Netflix recently started cracking down on the practice. Now, Disney is following in their footsteps and tightening up on password sharing for Disney+. This means customers will no longer be able to share their accounts outside of their household. Still, there will be features for transferring a profile and buying an extra member for a fee.

When Netflix cracked down on its password-sharing problem, it turned out that it was a very successful move. It led to a major boost in subscriber numbers for the streaming platform, giving it 13 million new subscribers by the end of 2023, so it's no wonder that success has now set a trend. This was evident when last year Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company was searching for ways to address the account sharing issue and come up with new monetization strategies in 2024. The crackdown in Canada started on November 1, 2023, and will certainly take place in the US and the UK soon. It was also reported that Hulu, which is also owned by Disney, sent an email to its US users that it would also crack down on account sharing for those outside of a user's household.

If Disney uses the same method as Netflix to crack down on password sharing for its streaming platform, account activity will be monitored with the help of IP addresses and device IDs. These are perfect for showing where the primary account holder is based and establishing the area of the household. Once that is done, other users will be blocked.