The Disney + website on a laptop in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Monday, July 18, 2022.
Gabe Jones | bloomberg | Getty Images
Disney joins the streaming fight against password sharing.
CEO Bob Iger said on an earnings call Wednesday that the company is exploring account sharing for streaming and will provide additional details about its policy to limit it later this year.
“We already have the technical capacity to monitor a lot of this,” Egger said on Wednesday. “I won’t give an exact number, except to say it’s important.”
The company will roll out tactics to mitigate password sharing in 2024. While Iger said Disney should see some impact from rolling it out in 2024, initiatives to prevent password sharing will not be completed next year.
The move comes as Disney and its peers have looked for ways to make streaming profitable — ways that have included cutting spending on content, introducing cheaper ad-supported options, and blocking account sharing. Disney is following in the footsteps of Netflix, which began rolling out a new account sharing policy earlier this year.
Iger said Wednesday that the strategy is a “real priority” for the company.
Disney has three streaming services under its umbrella: Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. The three services are also available in a bundle at a cheaper price. The company previously said it would soon offer a “single app experience” in the US that integrates Hulu content into Disney+, though standalone options will remain.
Streamers have also used price increases to increase revenue.
Disney said Wednesday that it will raise prices for nearly all of its streaming services. Ad-free Disney+ will cost $13.99 per month, an increase of 27%. The price of Hulu without ads goes up to $17.99 per month, an increase of 20%. Hulu and Disney+ ad-supported options will remain the same.
Egger said the company views advertising as a key way to reach profitability.
Since the company is eliminating password sharing, Egger said, it doesn’t know how the action will affect subscriber growth.
“Obviously we think there will be some but we don’t expect,” he said, adding that the change would be an opportunity to grow the business.
Netflix has been a leader among streaming services in cracking down on password sharing. It was one of the initiatives Netflix discussed after it began seeing subscriber growth stagnant in 2022 and looked for ways to increase revenue. Netflix, like Disney+, has added a cheaper ad-supported layer.
In July, Netflix reported that it added 5.9 million customers during the second quarter as it began its password-sharing campaign in the United States.
Netflix previously reported that more than 100 million households, or about 43% of its global user base, have joint accounts. The company said that affected its ability to invest in new content.
Netflix is rolling out account sharing initiatives internationally first. It notified its US customers in May that they would have to stop sharing accounts.
Netflix subscribers share accounts they got from some options. Members can either move someone’s profile outside of their family so the person can start a new membership and pay on their own. Or, the main account holder can pay an additional fee of $7.99 per month for each person outside their household using their account.
It’s not clear what methods Disney will use to reduce account sharing.
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