Once Netflix did it, and it worked, all the other streaming services were no doubt going to follow. Disney is next, which will soon crack down on password sharing for Disney Plus, Hulu and ESPN Plus, or any of those bundles.
Bob Iger says that this process is going to be begin in June 2024 in “a few markets,” though he didn’t list them, and it’s unclear whether that may include the US. But after that, the larger rollout will begin in September 2024, and after that, no more sharing, lest you risk disconnection.
Like Netflix, the new Disney rules will let you add individuals outside your household for an additional fee instead of them “freeloading.” The move comes as streaming services must claw and scrape to find new subscribers in a crowded market, in addition to footing bills for pricey content. Disney is no exception.
Before, when Netflix proposed this, there was some amount of skepticism and the idea was that the opposite may happen. It would just result in a lot of cancellations with few bothering to pull the trigger and actually sign up.
Well, that’s not what happened, and Netflix’s crackdown ended up being a roaring success for them. Netflix added 6 million new subscribers after the new password sharing/account adding rules went into effect.
Co-CEO Greg Peters said execs “know that it’s working” in an earnings call. “They are choosing plans and engaging at rates, have retention characteristics that generally look like higher-tenure members,” Peters said. “That’s good.”
Max has already announced plans to do this as well, supposedly in late 2024 or early 2025. Disney appears to have a more fixed timeline with this recent discussion of the concept. It is likely not a question of if this is going to work for Max and Disney, but to what degree it will work. It may not produce as significant as results as Netflix’s if people deem their content less necessary, but it’s no longer smart to predict some sort of abandonment and no conversion to paying customers, despite what people may say they’re going to do when asked.
At some point this will come to every streaming service. The ones that are trying to look “nice” by letting it happen for now will probably convert eventually, though again, we’ll see if anyone can match Netflix’s sign-up surge.
Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Read the full article here
