During a earnings call this week, Disney CEO Bob Iger shared that password sharing is an area that could lead to potential growth. While specifics weren’t shared by Iger about what the plan is exactly, this is clearly something that Disney is looking at moving forward.
“We are actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” Iger said on Disney’s earnings call. “Later this year, we will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms on our sharing policies, and we will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”
The focus on cracking down on password sharing comes as companies like Netflix have already done so. Disney’s streaming services currently do have a policy in place that customers can’t “share your login credentials with third parties.” However, this isn’t defined precisely. Expect this policy to get updated in the not so distant future.
The focus on cracking down on password sharing comes as Disney is looking to turn its direct to consumer profitable by the end of fiscal year 2024. Disney announced that it will be raising prices in October on its ad-free subscriptions of Disney+ and Hulu. It will also be expanding where the ad-supported subscriptions are offered starting in November.
During the call, Iger was asked how widespread password sharing was for its streaming services. “I’m not going to give you a specific number, except to say that it’s significant,” Iger said. “What we don’t know, of course, is as we get to work on this, how much of the password sharing as we basically eliminate it will convert to growth in subs. Obviously, we believe there will be some, but we’re not speculating.”
Iger concluded his answer saying, “What we are saying, though, is that in calendar ’24, we’re going to get at this issue. And so while it is likely you’ll see some impact in calendar ’24, it’s possible that we won’t be complete or the work will not be completed within the calendar year. But we certainly have established this as a real priority. And we actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.”
Disney is currently in the process of changing its mark of success for its streaming services from subscribers to profitability. Currently Disney+ has 105.7 million subscribers. Hulu has 44 million and ESPN has 25.2 million.
