After Netflix took measures against sharing an account, so-called account sharing, its competitor Disney now also wants to prevent this possibility on its streaming service.
Customers should pay for their own account
According to Disney boss Bob Iger when announcing the latest quarterly figures, this should happen as early as 2024: account sharing should be prevented. “We already have the technical ability to monitor it,” Bob told Iger CNBC. However, he does not want to reveal how many users the end of account sharing will affect. However, it is a significant number. According to its own information, one in three users of its competitor Netflix watched without their own subscription.
Disney is keeping a low profile for now
While Netflix has been positioning itself on the subject of account sharing for years in support documents and FAQs, Disney is keeping a low profile. In the terms of use you simply state that you do not allow the to share your own account with “third parties”. In contrast to Netflix, however, you do not define whether you can share your account even within a household.
Ban is intended to compensate for losses
With the ban, Disney wants to encourage a larger proportion of users to take out a subscription. The loss of $512 million in the past quarter is likely to provide a significant reason for the measure. However, it should also be borne in mind that in the same period last year they still had to accept a loss of 1.1 billion US dollars. In addition, the desired increase in users was missed. The service only saw an increase of 800,000 subscribers. Total revenue was $22.3 billion last quarter.
Comment: We’ll have to wait and see
While at first glance the measure could probably serve the market for unlicensed copies, realistically we actually have to wait and see. At Netflix, too, there was already talk of the end of the service after the sharing ban took effect. In the end, however, Netflix was able to achieve the exact opposite. You now have more paying users and therefore more profit. In the end, users will probably always subscribe to the service that currently offers the desired content – and then cancel it again after consumption. As we all know, no one has anything to give away…