Disney’s password-sharing crackdown has begun

Starting on November 1st, Disney Plus will begin restricting password sharing. In Canada.

The company announced the change in an email sent to Canadian subscribers. Disney has not provided many details on how it plans to enforce this policy — its email merely states that “we’re implementing restrictions on your ability to share your account or login credentials outside of your household”. The announcement reads more like a strong finger-wag than anything else: “You may not share your subscription outside of your household,” reads the company’s updated Help Center.

A new “account sharing” section in the Canadian subscriber agreement also notes that the company may “analyze the use of your account”, and that failing to comply with the agreement could lead to account limits or termination.

The announcement comes over a month after Disney’s Q3 earnings call, where CEO Bob Iger said that the company was “actively exploring” ways to address shared accounts. Iger said that a “significant” number of people are currently sharing passwords across Disney’s services, and added that Disney has the “technical capability” to monitor sign-ins.

Disney Plus is just the latest streaming service to attempt to tackle password sharing. Netflix has been testing such restrictions for over a year in various countries, and began cracking down in the US in May of 2023. Netflix accounts are restricted based on a user’s IP address; subscribers, depending on the plan they select, have the option of adding additional members to their accounts for an additional fee. The company said in its Q2 earnings call that its policy has driven more subscribers to the service.

But hey, if it’s any consolation: Canadian users now have access to the cheaper ad-supported tier. This next turn in the streaming wars is going to get pricey.