As of: February 10, 2024, 6:29 a.m
By: Lennart Schwenck
Comments
Press
Split
Disney Plus wants to crack down on password sharing.
From April 2024, the streaming provider will stop account sharing - a new subscription model is to follow.
Burbank – Disney plans to make it more difficult to share Disney Plus accounts outside of your own household.
Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, announced this measure in August 2023 without providing further details.
Now the Mickey Mouse company is getting more specific.
From the end of March 2024, it will no longer be possible to share your account with other users, as
Comicbook.com
reports.
This strategy is similar to the measures that Netflix has already implemented in Germany and other countries, which led to an increase in subscriber numbers and sales.
It has become common for streaming services such as Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video for one person to subscribe and then family and friends to contribute financially to share the account.
However, given the multitude of new streaming services and exclusive content, the question arises as to whether this so-called account sharing is even allowed.
Account Sharing: Is Sharing Streaming Account Passwords Legal?
A look at the Disney+ terms and conditions provides answers.
Although it is possible to stream on Disney+ on multiple devices at the same time, sharing accounts with people outside your own household is actually not permitted according to the terms and conditions.
Disney+ is designed so that every user belongs to the same household, so parents and children can stream different content at the same time.
Therefore, sharing an account with friends who do not live in the same household is actually prohibited.
Until now it was just tolerated.
Section 3bx of the Disney+ user agreement states literally: “Your contractual right of use does not authorize you to do the following: [...] share your access data with third parties.”
Streaming provider Disney+ prevents password sharing: Netflix generated five million new customers © iamgo images
Netflix as a role model: Disney Plus is also drawing conclusions
However, it remains unlikely that users who have shared their data with others will have to fear legal consequences.
As a rule, no claims for damages are made.
However, there is a risk that the account will be restricted or blocked.
Although Disney+ allows multiple profiles and simultaneous streaming, suspicious activity such as logging in from different locations could result in the streaming provider revoking usage rights from the account.
An email Disney sent to its U.S. subscribers said: “Unless your contract states otherwise, you may not share your subscription outside of your household.
We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement.
If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, we may restrict or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other action permitted by this Agreement.”
Disney+: New Flex subscription should enable account sharing
However, Disney is working on a subscription model that makes it possible to still share the account with people outside of your own household.
According to Disney CFO Hugh Johnston, the streaming provider is designing a Flex subscription later in 2024 for precisely these purposes.
How expensive this will be will be announced in the second quarter, reports
Deadline
.
The steps Disney has now taken to curb account sharing were already planned for September 2023.
At a conference, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced: “We are actively working to address account sharing and find the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family.
Later this year, we will begin updating our subscriber agreements with additional terms and conditions and our sharing policies, and we will introduce tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”
My news
This will change with TÜV 2024: sticker, costs and deadline reading
Recall due to risk of mold – Edeka and Rewe affected read
No access to the inheritance: Postbank does not release the account
“A wave is building up”: Auto Pope Dudenhöffer with bitter forecast for electric cars
First products under suspicion: Federal Environment Agency finds banned plasticizers in urine samples
Change in the general inspection: Drivers will soon have to dig deeper into their pockets
Disney CEO Bob Iger on the future of the Disney Plus streaming platform
In an interview with
CNBC
immediately before the company's earnings conference, Iger said Netflix is the model for Disney's push for a stricter password-sharing policy.
“Our goal is to not only make this business profitable, but also to make it a business that delivers margins that we are comfortable with and expect from all of our businesses,” he said.
“Netflix was over 10 years ahead of us.
[...] In many ways the [Disney] streaming business is still nascent, but very successful when you look at the number of global subscribers we gained immediately and since.
But if you think about Netflix and what they've done in terms of password sharing, which we're going to get to later this year... that's not going to impact us until 2025."
In 2022, Netflix announced that it would actively crack down on password sharing.
This was initially introduced in the USA, and since May 2023 this regulation has also applied in Germany.
Users outside the same household who want to share an account must now pay an additional contribution of 4.99 euros.
Although some concerns have been raised, this measure has proven successful.
Last May, Netflix announced that, according to
Comicbook.com
, it had signed up over five million new subscriptions since the policy was implemented.
(
ls
)