New Password Sharing Rules Still Coming to Disney+ for US Customers in 2024
Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed the news this week, saying the company likely wouldn’t see any financial gains from the change until 2025.
Despite all the magic and mystique that surrounds Disney theme parks, and the whole Disney brand in general, the company is just that: a company. Its bottom line always comes first, particularly when it’s working so hard to make streaming the centerpiece of its entertainment offerings going forward.
- Rules against password sharing are coming to American Disney+ subscribers next year.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger says the company won’t see tangible financial gain from the rule change until next year.
- Users in Canada have already noted some changes, specifically an updated user agreement which says password sharing is against Disney+’s terms of service.
When Will Disney+ Enact Password Sharing Rules?
The shift to a streaming-forward entity is going better for Disney than it was a year ago. It has reduced losses from its streaming segment by hundreds of millions of dollars, and is still on track to see a profit from its streaming services by the end of its fiscal 2024. Disney also recently agreed to terms on a deal with Comcast, under which it would finally assume full control of Hulu. The company plans to start merging its content onto Disney+ by December.
As part of its path to streaming success, Disney is doing everything it can to make meaningful increases to its average revenue per user (ARPU), the key metric that streaming platforms are attempting to strengthen nowadays. Disney+’s ad-supported tier having 5 million+ subscribers will certainly help in that regard, but the company is also looking at another possible means of boosting subscriber revenues: rules against password sharing.
Disney CEO Bob Iger first confirmed that rules against account sharing were coming in the company’s fiscal third quarter earnings call in August. Its fiscal fourth quarter having just ended, Iger spoke with Wall Street analysts again this week, and reiterated that rules against account sharing were to be introduced in the United States next year.
“We have additional opportunities for improvement in our streaming business that will come from implementing stronger standards around account sharing,” Iger said. “Although given the timing of our planned rollout, we don’t expect a meaningful impact until 2025.”
The “meaningful impact” Iger references is to the company’s finances, not for customers themselves, who will likely see the impact of password sharing rules from Disney far sooner. Indeed, users in Canada have already noticed that their terms of service have been updated to reflect that sharing passwords on the service is not allowed.
Where Do Other Streamers Stand in Terms of Password Sharing Rules?
Netflix, of course, got the party started when it comes to rules against sharing passwords. The world’s largest streamer gave months of advanced warning before enacting its official guidelines to stop users from sharing accounts in May. That rollout has been done in stages, so even if users haven’t been affected by the crackdown yet, it's still coming for them.
Paramount Global CFO Naveen Chopra also discussed password-sharing rules during her company’s recent conference call with analysts accompanying its quarterly earnings report. Unlike Disney+ and Netflix, however, she says that Paramount+ is not likely to introduce such rules in the foreseeable future, as account sharing has not been a meaningful headwind in making the streamer profitable thus far.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav hasn’t brought up password sharing himself, but there’s a good possibility it’s in Max’s future. Zaslav has been near-rabid in his pursuit of any method to turn Max profitable; those methods have largely been successful, as the streamer turned in a profit of $111 million in its fiscal third quarter. However, data from last year indicates that nearly 40% of Max customers aren't paying for the service, so seeing a crackdown on account sharing from that streaming service would hardly be a surprise.
There’s no exact date yet for when Disney+ will introduce its rules against sharing passwords, but users should be under no illusion. They’re still coming, and other streamers could well start to enact their own restrictions on account sharing as 2024 rolls along.
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.”