One of the perks of streaming services is that until very recently you could share your login details with close friends and family, so that you could all share one subscription and catch up on your favourite shows. But streaming providers, starting with Netflix, have decided this hurts their bottom line and so in an attempt to get all of you to pay, they are rolling out ways to crackdown on password sharing – and Disney Plus is next.
Disney Plus launched in November 2019 and has grown to be Netflix’s main competitor, thanks to its back catalogue of every Disney film ever made and the acquisitions of Star Wars, The Simpsons and Marvel franchises.
Currently in the UK, you can login to someone else’s account or share your login with anyone in the country and both watch. But Disney wants to stop that, announcing in February it would start to block sharing and instead introduce paid sharing.
Netflix already has paid sharing, where anyone with a £10.99 per month Standard or £17.99 per month Premium account can add an ‘extra member slot’ for £4.99. It’s a way to save spending the full amount every month, but for Netflix it’s a way to get more subscriber money. You’re only allowed to share your password with people who you live with.
The firm uses location-based tech to see if a login is frequently watching content by checking “IP addresses, device IDs, and account activity from devices signed into the Netflix account”. If it thinks you’re using someone’s login and don’t live with them, it’ll send a verification code to the account holder’s email address or phone number, and lock you out. This isn’t impossible to get around, but Netflix is making it annoying enough that you will probably just want to pay up.
Though Disney hasn’t revealed if it will use the same measures, in an earnings call this week Disney CEO Bob Iger said the password crackdown would start in September of this year (via The Verge), which is very likely to apply to Brits.
If that weren’t enough, the firm is reportedly raising the price of Disney Plus in October – so this particular subscription could be about to cost you and your family a lot more than it currently does. Disney has not confirmed how much it will charge to add extra members onto an existing subscription, but it’s likely to use a similar method to Netflix.
