After seeing the success of Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown, another streaming service is looking to stop you from sharing your account with people outside your home.
In this week’s call with investors, Disney CEO Bob Iger called the problem “a real priority” and said the company was “actively exploring ways to address account sharing.” That announcement came on the same day that Disney revealed price hikes for its Disney+ streaming service (doubling the service’s launch price in 2019) and reported it had lost subscribers for the second quarter in a row.
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Iger noted that subscriber agreements would be updated later this year, and “tactics to drive monetization” would begin in 2024. He didn’t state exactly how many people were sharing accounts, calling it “significant.” (Netflix estimated its number to be in the millions.) Iger did mention that Disney had the technical capability to block account sharing, adding that while there may be “some impact in calendar 2024,” it was entirely possible that work on the issue wouldn’t be completed for years.
He closed his comments on the issue of password sharing by saying that stopping the practice was “an opportunity to grow the business.” The company has a current valuation of nearly $160 billion.
It’s impossible to truly guess what kind of impact this will have on subscribers, but despite widespread customer complaints, the crackdown had its intended effect for Netflix. In the weeks after their plan to cut off non-paying customers took effect, the streaming giant actually saw a record-breaking number of signups.
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