“Your Disney+ subscription is intended for use within your home, with a collection of devices associated with your primary residence.”. Mickey tightens the screw on account sharing. As Bob Iger announced earlier this year, the last quarter marks a turning point in the strategy of the SVoD giant. After tolerating account sharing between friends, colleagues or with relatives living under another roof, the company acts to set up blocks in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Europe. After a launch in selected markets during summer 2024international deployment is on the agenda for this 2024 school year.
Profitability at all costs
To save precious money, make it easier to manage family subscriptions, or simply enjoy access to an existing account without having to pay a cent, many Disney+ users rely on a loved one’s subscribers. Most often, holders organize to share the bill, with generous parents providing access to their children who no longer live in the family home. For platforms, these ghost users — those who do not pay their own subscription — represent a significant loss of earnings. According to Netflix, 100 million people were squatting on an account before account sharing restrictions were implemented in 2022.
While Disney+ has never made such calculations—or released these figures—it’s a safe bet that this phenomenon weighs heavily on its growth curve. After investing heavily in content creation, offering attractive prices and providing a premium experience to everyone, the company is reviewing its strategy. The arrival of advertising was only the first step in the Burbank firm’s plan to achieve profitability. Account Sharing Restrictions should mechanically increase its number of memberships and favor the formula supported by advertising.
How does it work?
Like Netflix, Disney+ considers a home to be a collection of devices that regularly connect to the same Wifi. In concrete terms, thanks to the connection information of your smartphones, tablets, computers and television, the application will be able to determine which users are truly residents of the main household. A regular connection will therefore be necessary. Otherwise, a warning message should appear. “This TV does not appear to be part of the household for this account”. It will invite the profile concerned to subscribe to their own subscription or to bet on adding an additional profile or to choose the option “I am traveling.”
On the American forum, Disney+ details the procedure to follow. It is via the application or the site settings that account holders will be able to activate the option. You will simply have to choose the profile linked to this external person, and pay 6,99 dollars additional for Disney+ Basic subscribers and $9.99 for Disney+ Premium. Please note that the operation cannot be repeated several times, each account will have only one additional member.
Already in France?
If Disney+ announces a deployment on a European scale, the terms for France are not yet known. The application has not yet been updated in France, it is currently not possible to invite an additional member. The Price of this option is also not known in our green lands, and no email was sent. At the time of writing, the Disney+ France help center still displays the following message: “Later this year, account holders will be able to add someone outside of their household to their Disney+ subscription for an additional fee. More information will be announced at a later date.”
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