Disney+ Users Alerted: Major Changes Ahead as Accounts Face Blockage in 30 Days

Disney+ subscribers have been warned as the streaming service prepares to block accounts en masse.

The road for Disney+ hasn’t exactly run smoothly. Despite launching to widespread acclaim in 2019 – when it beat its own expectations and gained over 10 million subscribers in its first 24 hours – and staying strong at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, things soon fell apart for Disney’s first major foray into streaming.

Subscriber numbers have suffered in recent years, with The Walt Disney Company posting another loss of 1.3 million users in February 2024. In April, it was reported that Disney had burned over $11.4 billion in operating losses since launching, with at least $500 million being poured into three Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) series: Moon Knight, Secret Invasion, and the second season of Loki.

Fortunately, things have started to turn around for the streaming service this year. In May, Disney+ (finally) became profitable. Despite being projected to lose more than $100 million in the most recent quarter, its earnings report confirmed that it has, in fact, made a $47 million profit – which is two quarters ahead of schedule, as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Walt Disney Company Hugh Johnston confirmed to The New York Times.

But this didn’t happen totally by chance. With former Disney CEO Bob Chapek (who many within the company allegedly blamed for the streaming platform’s rapid decline) out, returning CEO Bob Iger got to work implementing a series of new changes for Disney+. These include increasing subscription prices, introducing a separate subscription tier with ads, and merging Disney+ with its sister service, Hulu.

Another change long teased by both Disney and Iger is a crackdown on password sharing. In May, Iger confirmed that “we’re starting to go after people who are sharing passwords improperly. We feel quite bullish about it. Obviously, we’re heartened by the results that Netflix has delivered in their password-sharing initiative, and believe that it will be one of the contributors to growth… going forward.”

Disney+ started emailing its U.S. subscribers in February to provide advance warning of the changes, which it claimed would come into effect on June 1, 2024. A term added to its user agreement in January reads as follows.

Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. ‘Household’ means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein. Additional Usage rules may apply for certain Service Tiers.

Despite the mention of June, things fell quiet on the Disney+ password-sharing front recently. However, it seems like Disney hasn’t abandoned the idea, as this week, Disney started cracking down harder on the practice in the UK, where it has unveiled a new feature called “Extra Members.”

Similar to Netflix’s system, this will require users to pay an extra fee for sharing their passwords without living in the same household. Disney hasn’t confirmed the exact price for each additional user yet, but reports suggest it is £4.99 ($6.40) per person.

In an email to its subscribers in the UK, Disney+ explained that an “Extra Member may create one profile within Disney+ for their sole use only and may not share their account details with anyone else. Subscribers and Extra Members are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of their access credentials.”

If you don’t pay for these extra members, other people will be blocked and prompted to do so whenever they try to access the content on Disney+ (similar to the current system on Disney+).

As per Disney, these extra members won’t actually need to live in the same house. However, they will need to live in the same country. The service will presumably use IP tracking to crack down on those trying to avoid paying the fee, although it’s unknown how this will affect those trying to access their account and watch a cheeky episode of The Mandalorian or enjoy a late-night Toy Story marathon while traveling abroad.

It’s thought that this feature will come into effect for users within 30 days of receiving the notification email. Currently, it’s unclear when Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. will need to start paying for “Extra Members” (although we’re willing to bet that the answer is “soon”).

How do you feel about Disney cracking down on password sharing?