Preventing subscription customers from sharing passwords with family and friends has been a significant challenge for streaming giant, Netflix and now Disney.
With entertainment channels considered a luxury that not everyone can afford following a global Cost of Living crisis, password sharing has become more cost efficient but detrimental to earning potential for these companies.
A particular concern with password sharing is the compromise of data privacy and security if account data is freely shared, which could end up in the hands of cyber criminals, and not the people known to us.
Rather an imposing an outright ban on password sharing, and closing these individual accounts, Disney indicated that users will be encouraged to upgrade and pay slightly more for a “family account” to create more users. Disney Plus will be hiking prices later this year, cracking down on account-sharing that could damage revenue
Restricting account sharing for Netflix users earlier this year had a noticeable difference to levels of new subscribers, which increased by 5.9 million customers during the second quarter.
“Getting at this issue in 2024”, Disney CEO Bob Iger commented that the firm has the “technical capability” to monitor sign-in but prevent customers being turned away from the entertainment channel altogether.
He declined to say how much of its global user base used shared accounts.
Disney has not confirmed methods it will use to stop account sharing, while Netflix, who began their campaign last year to regain their earning power, hailed new rules for users a “success”.
