Bad news for anyone currently freeloading from their friend’s or family’s Disney+, the platform has become the latest streaming site to announce that it’s cracking down on password sharing.
The corporation has revealed that it will soon roll out the final phase of their measures to tackle password sharing between households.
Disney CEO Bob Iger said at a recent meeting: “We started our password-sharing initiative in June. That kicks in, in earnest, in September.”
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Once in effect, it’ll mean that subscribers to the platform will no longer be able to give out their password to loved ones, preventing them from streaming for free.
Disney+ has a huge catalog of thousands of films and TV shows to choose from on the service but you could lose access to it soon if you’re sharing the password.
The company’s plan to crack down is an initiative which will track the IP address of its users to make sure that the service isn’t being used in unauthorized locations.
Despite the fact that this will mean many people losing access to the streaming platform, Iger reckons that he is making the right decision and claims that the plan has been positively received by most subscribers.
He added: “We've had no backlash at all to the notifications that have gone out and to the work we've already been doing.”
Disney+ will also be introducing a new feature to the service called “extra members” which will allow account holders to pay a fee to add users in another household to their account.
It’s not yet known when this addition will become available.
Taking to Reddit to share their thoughts, one user wrote: “Once my parents and my brother can't watch Disney plus anymore on my account then Disney plus has to be cancelled. I use it so little for myself, it is literally not worth it just for me.”
Another said: “I hope they do a better job with it than Netflix. Netflix still insists my phone and iPad aren't in the household every few weeks, even though I'm literally in the same house as the account holder.”
And a third added: “What saddens me is in the past Disney taught us all that sharing is caring… I’m standing by this statement and never backing down. They taught us sharing is caring. But the moment it involves Bob Iger losing precious money it’s seemingly all hands on deck…”
But Disney+ isn’t the first streaming service to take these sorts of measures. Netflix previously cracked down password sharing and it’s resulted in soaring profits and a record number of subscribers.