It seems the era of sharing your streaming service passwords with friends and family for free is finally at an end.
The Disney+ password sharing crackdown has now come into effect, as the streaming giant starts to make users pay an extra fee for people using their account in another household.
Disney+ UK customers now need to pay an extra £4.99 per month to add an ‘Extra Member’ outside their household, or £3.99 if they have Disney+ with ads.
In the US, customers have to pay even more to share their password with someone in another home – $6.99 or a hefty $9.99.
However, Disney+ customers are furious with the change with many threatening to cancel their accounts altogether.
Disney+ has announced the rollout of its password sharing crackdown in the UK and around the world
On X, formerly Twitter, one angry subscriber wrote: ‘No password sharing with my elderly mother who lives 2,000 miles away @DisneyPlus??? Time for me to cancel.’
Disney has long threatened to crack down on password sharing but has only now rolled out the change across multiple countries.
Essentially, this change means that only the bill-paying subscriber and the people they live with will be able to use a Disney+ account – unless they pay the new ‘Extra Member’ fee.
Disney explains in a blog post: ‘Our Disney+ subscription is meant to be used within your Household, which is a collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside there.’
Extra Members will have to create their own login credentials, but crucially it will be within the existing account and the account holder (the ‘Subscriber’) will be the one footing the bill.
From this week, anyone who has been sharing their friend or family’s account will find themselves unable to log in unless Extra Member is set up for them.
From this week, subscribers will need to pay an additional monthly fee to invite an Extra Member outside of their household to stream content from their account
From this week, anyone who has been sharing their friend or family’s account will find themselves unable to log in unless Extra Member is set up for them. While travelling, users will be able to select ‘I’M AWAY FROM HOME’ to log into their account from outside their normal household
On social media, Disney+ subscribers have been outraged by the change with many threatening to cancel
To allow someone outside your household to stream Disney+ content will cost £4.99 per month in the UK
Many subscribers and those using friends accounts have been outraged by the change, with one commenter saying ‘my life is over’
Essentially, each Disney+ subscriber is now able to invite one other person to their account as a member for the additional monthly fee, which varies.
Extra Member costs an additional £3.99 per month for Disney+ Standard with Ads (the cheapest membership tier) and £4.99 per month for Standard and Premium account holders.
Netflix, which implemented a similar paid sharing option last year, allows subscribers to add up to two extra members, but Disney+ customers can only add one.
While Extra Members will only be able to stream on one device at a time, the account features will otherwise be the same as the main account.
People added as an Extra Member must be over 18, reside in the same country as the main account holder and can’t sign up with an email address ‘associated with an active or lapsed Disney+ subscription’.
Alternatively, people can just start their own Disney+ account, transferring their old profile to a new subscription.
Disney suggests that people should ‘sign up for their own subscription’ and has made it possible to transfer their profile to a new account
Disney’s move was likely inspired by the resounding success of Netflix’s password sharing crackdown which led to the service adding 9.3 million subscribers in three months.
However, on social media, Disney+ subscribers have been outraged by the change.
On X, one commenter wrote: ‘Disney got rid of password sharing my life is over.’
‘Disney ain’t rich enough already damn’, wrote another.
Another commenter complained that Disney was ‘always finding a way to squeeze us of more money.’
And while Disney might be hoping the crackdown will boost subscription rates, many customers have already threatened to cancel.
Some commenters have attributed the change to an attempt to generate more income from existing subscribers
One subscriber wrote that Disney was ‘always finding a way to squeeze us of more money’
Disney may have hoped that the crackdown would boost subscriptions, but many paying members have threatened to cancel
One commenter added that they felt justified sharing their account password given that Disney had increased its prices without offering any more content
One furious Disney+ customer wrote in a foul-mouthed tirade: ‘You crooked *****. The moment I get that password sharing BS, I’m cancelling your ****.’
‘Yeah, let’s just cancel our subscriptions now’, added another.
One commenter joked: ‘I’m about to go back to cable man’.
A particular issue of concern for many customers is that the password sharing crackdown comes as Disney has continued to change its pricing structure.
Previously, subscribers in the UK were able to access the full array of features and content for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for an annual subscription.
But as part of an overhaul last November, Disney+ separated into three tiers – the cheapest for £4.99 per month, ‘Standard’ for £7.99 per month and ‘Premium’ for £10.99 per month.
Crucially, the cheapest option, costing £4.99, plays adverts before and even during shows and movies.
In the US, Disney announced that prices are due to increase this October by up to $2 per month for most subscription tiers, hinting at potential UK increases in 2025.
On X, one Disney+ customer complained: ‘I MAY have been accepting of this extra fee if Disney hadn’t already gradually increasing the base cost of Disney+ these past few years.’
Another wrote: ‘Disney+ just stopped password sharing on my account and y’all are killing me. You raise my subscriptions every month, I’m gonna let my friends and siblings use my account.’
While one commenter added: ‘Raise prices then do a password sharing crackdown, bold move lets see how it plays out for you.’
Until November 2023 there had only been one price for Disney+ in the UK – £7.99 a month – but this single tier split into three tiers
One commenter joked that they would go back to cable television, rather than pay for additional accounts
In a foul-mouthed pot, one commenter threatened to cancel the moment that the anti-password-sharing measures were implemented
On X, some commenters said they could have tolerated the change had Disney not already increased the price of subscriptions
Some suggested that increasing prices while also cracking down on password sharing could drive subscribers away
On Disney+ subscriber asked why they needed to pay more just to share their password information
Another commenter branded the charge as ‘unnecessary’ complaining that they now had to pay to share their password
Importantly, Disney has clarified that subscribers will still be able to use their accounts as they travel.
Like Netflix, Disney+ will track the user’s IP address to determine where people normally stream content from.
If you try to log into your account while away from home, Disney will detect that you are not at your household and show a message saying: ‘This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account’.
To log in, select the option ‘I’M AWAY FROM HOME’ to send a one-time passcode to your associated email account which will authorise the device for a limited time.
Users can also update their household to a new address with a one-time passcode if they have recently moved house.
