Oh dear, Disney+ is finally following in Netflix’s footsteps, as the streaming service is planning on curtailing password sharing later this year.
Earlier this year, the house of mouse changed its Disney+ subscriber agreement to make it clear that password sharing will soon be a thing of the past. Now, in a recent interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger has announced that the company plans on “launching our first real foray into password sharing” this coming June. Iger went on to clarify that these plans will kick off in “just a few countries in a few markets” before it will affect all subscribers in September.
Essentially, if you’re using someone else’s Disney+ subscription at this point in time, and you want to keep using it, you best enjoy the next few months of not having to pay the full price, if you’re paying at all. When Netflix started cracking down on password sharing back in 2023, it charged users an additional $8 a month just to add an extra viewer outside their home, which is on top of the $15.50 a month on the standard plan, meaning you’re looking at over $23 a month across two homes. That’s a far cry from the original price of $8 a month just for a standard Netflix plan, and shows you how truly expensive the streaming service has gotten.
Like Netflix, Disney will also allow you to add members outside your home for an “additional fee,” but of course how much that fee is hasn’t been shared just yet. Recently, Disney+ and Hulu combined into one app, though you do have to pay for both subscriptions individually. The only actual advantage this has is that you can see everything you’re watching in one place, and get better recommendations across all the kinds of shows and films you watch, but whether it’s worth the cost of two streaming services is another question altogether.