Disney+ Announces How Much You’ll Have to Pay to Share Your Password
Disney+’s paid sharing ability closely resembles Netflix, which was the first streamer to crack down on users sharing passwords.
As promised numerous times over the past year, Disney+ is beginning to enforce restrictions against password-sharing between multiple households. As Netflix did before, Disney is also allowing accountholders to pay extra for someone outside of their home to stream titles via their account. On Wednesday, Disney officially revealed how customers could set that functionality up and how much they’ll have to pay to do so.
Key Details:
- Extra Member profiles on Disney+ will start at $6.99 per month.
- Disney Bundle subscribers cannot add an Extra Member profile at this time.
- Disney will send a one-time password to subscribers who are away from home, allowing them to watch their Disney+ on the road.
Starting today, Disney+ subscribers in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region can add an “Extra Member” profile to their Disney+ account. This will cost paid subscribers an extra $7 per month on top of their subscription price if they have an ad-supported Disney+ Basic account, or $10 if they have an ad-free Disney+ Premium account.
Once Disney+ raises prices on its subscription plans in October, the price of adding a new viewer to a Disney+ Basic account will be $3 cheaper than having that viewer create an account of their own. Adding an extra member to a Disney+ Premium subscription will be $6 less than creating a new Disney+ Premium account.
Users can morph an existing Disney+ profile into an “Extra Member” profile, allowing the sharer to retain their watch history and recommendations. Only one Extra Member profile is allowed per paid Disney+ subscription at this time.
As of now, Disney Bundle subscribers are not allowed to add extra members. If this capability comes down the line in the future, Disney Bundlers will likely have to pay more to add additional viewers to their account, since the Bundle includes access to Hulu and ESPN+ as well.
Is Disney Enforcing Password-Sharing Restrictions More Tightly?
For almost a year, Disney has been pledging to roll out rules against account sharing some time in 2024. Disney CEO Bob Iger promised that efforts would begin in earnest in September, and now that promise has come to fruition.
In the same release announcing that paid sharing was now available, Disney explained that customers trying to use their account away from home may be confronted with a message saying “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Disney+ household for this account.” Disney primarily relies on the location of the user to determine the household that Disney+ belongs to, so this is a sure indication that password-sharing restrictions are rolling out more widely.
On that screen, viewers will be given the option to either update their household location or select the “I’m Away From Home” button. The latter option will generate a one-time passcode sent to the account owner’s email that will allow the would-be user to log in.
Disney is bent on making its streaming services regularly profitable, and paid sharing will be a big part of that equation, even if the company expects it won’t see a big return on the plan until 2025. The company expects that profitability to come by the end of calendar 2024 by increasing prices, promoting its ad-supported plans and introducing new rules against the sharing of accounts to help it get closer to that goal.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”