Disney+ will block you from sharing your password with friends and family — unless you agree to pay more

Disney CEO Bob Igor teased plans to crack down on password-sharing last year, but this is the first time we’ve had a concrete release date from the entertainment behemoth.

“Disney+ accounts suspected of improper sharing will be presented with new capabilities to allow their borrowers to start their own subscriptions,”confirmed Hugh Johnston, Disney’s Chief Financial Officer, during a call with shareholders. “Later this calendar year, account holders who want to allow access to individuals from outside their household will be able to add them to their accounts for an additional fee.”

Disney+ quietly updated its small print to explicitly ban users from sharing a single subscription with people outside of their household earlier this year. The new terms of service started to apply to new subscribers on January 25, but won’t apply to existing subscribers until March 14, 2024.

If the plans to crackdown on password-sharing found familiar, it’s likely because Netflix pursued a similar policy with its subscribers last year. The US company now requires all subscribers to set a Netflix Household. This serves as a primary location, linked to your household broadband connection, for any devices signed in with your account information.

​While you’re still allowed to travel with mobile devices, like an iPhone or Android phone, any other Smart TVs, streaming dongles, or Sky and Freeview set-top boxes will warn that you’re outside of your Netflix Household and prompt you to change the associated location ...or add an extra paid member to your subscription at the rate of £4.99 a month per person.

If you haven’t manually set a Netflix Household for your account, it will be set automatically based on the location where you most frequently stream from the video on-demand service.

While Disney has stayed tight-lipped about the specifics, we’d expect its password-sharing crackdown to use a similar system. Although there’s no release date confirmed, Disney executives warned shareholders that any “notable benefits” from the changes wouldn’tarrive until later in the year, suggesting that it won’t roll out worldwide until autumn.

“While we are still in the early days and don’t expect notable benefits from these paid sharing initiatives until the back half of calendar 2024, we want to reach as large an audience as possible with our outstanding content,” Disney’s Hugh Johnston continued. “And we’re looking forward to rolling out this new functionality to improve the overall customer experience and grow our subscriber base.”

Last year, Disney+ overhauled its offering in the UK, replacing the previous one-subscription-fits-all approach with three different price tiers.

As part of the shake-up, it introduced a new ad-supported plan that allows viewers to access the streaming platform’s content for a cheaper price of £4.99 compared with its ad-free plans.

Subscribers to the new tier will be able to have two streams playing at the same time but they will not be able to download TV series, documentaries, and films to watch offline on devices.

The more expensive ad-free tiers include the standard package at £7.99, or £79.90 annually, which has the same video and audio quality as the lower level but allows for downloads on up to 10 devices, while the premium model at £10.99, or £109.90, has improved video and audio quality and allows four devices to watch concurrently.

​Disney+ exclusively hosts series including The Bear, Welcome To Wrexham, and Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story. It also launched a new series following the Kardashian-Jenner family last year, titled The Kardashians, which follows on from its predecessor, Keeping Up WithThe Kardashians, in documenting the personal lives and business ventures of the siblings.

Of course, the Netflix rival is also home to the animated classics that are most associated with the Walt Disney brand, including The Lion King, The Jungle Book, Cinderella, Frozen, and Encanto.