Disney+ follows other streamers announcing a war against people sharing their passwords and login details to others who do not live in the same house. The decision, which will potentially be felt by millions of viewers, is a game changer in how the company has been handling its subscriber’s accounts as well as a sign of new problems streaming services are encountering in the highly saturated market.
Walt Disney Company flagship streaming service, which it has been relying on as one of the main tools for building its online presence, will start introducing anti-password sharing across users who do not reside in the same household. This is the case as streaming platforms across the industry continue to combat the issue of password sharing that is said to threat revenue growth & subscriber count.
The change means that outside the household, Disney+ will offer the sharing feature for a monthly fee. This approach is the same Netflix also embarked and the results are putting it in place early this year when the streaming leader announced paid sharing options in different markets of the world.
Chasing profitability and subscriber growth, Disney has decided to crack down on password sharing that has previously affected its service Disney+. Since beginning in 2019, the service has garnered incredible popularity – millions of subscribers rushed to the collection of Disney, Marvels, Star Wars, and Pixar works; however, the company is searching for opportunities to increase the number of revenue from that audience.
Password sharing has been identified by industry commentators as a major problem for streaming services with approximate losses to firms standing at billions of dollars annually. With more rigorous account sharing policies put in place, Disney+ hopes to migrate some of these freeriders into paid customers, using the one account per user rules or the paid sharing model.
The implementation of the new policy has been predicted to be gradual with Disney+ possibly leverage a trial at several markets before it becomes a norm. There has been no detailed elaboration yet on price development of the paid sharing option as well as the specific techniques the company will apply in monitoring and implementing the new measures.
Disney+ is set to make this change to its platform, and people are bound to resist since they normally borrow passwords from other people. However, the company is confident that the value which the content library holds for consumers and the low-end price proposal in reference to conventional cable subscriptions will help supplement any possible consumer losses.
Password sharing is only one of the measures that Disney is taking towards enhancing profitability of streaming division. It has also been seeking other sources of additional income such as the addition of an ad-supported subscription plan and possibly increasing price for the subscription service plans without ad interruption.
The arguments above shows how streaming services have become popular over time and with more growth and development in these services, these industries’ watchers do expect more industries to come up with similar measures to curb/prevent password sharing and to get more value out of their subscribers. This movement indicates the fine line that streaming platforms are trying to walk as they try to keep their financial records healthy while also not angering their customers or slowing down the growth that has been the hallmark of the streaming age.
Investors and industry analysts will closely follow how Disney ‘s new policy has affected the company’s subscriber numbers and revenues during the next few months. How well or poorly this initiative would work could mean significant consequences for the entire streaming business, including whether it will inspire other services to take a similar route to combating account sharing.
Given this year’s trends and with streaming becoming the new normal, consumers can look forward to even more shifts in streaming delivery systems, as well as sharing options of one’s shows. Despite such changes, they all may be somehow disadvantageous to some users, it also demonstrate the stream industry’s continuous growth and development and Disney and other competing companies’ strive to establish good business model in the progressing competition of digital entertainment market.
Leave a Reply