Disney+ Account Sharing Crackdown Goes Global With Paid Sharing Plan

[techfreak23]

Everyone needs to cancel for a year to get Disneys heads out of their a****. This is completely ridiculous, and I can’t believe Netflix got away with it. We all knew it was coming after that. I don’t even share with anyone outside of my house, but this is still infuriating nonetheless. I’m going back to alternate methods for both now.

 

[Wasp14]

Like many others here, I cancelled over a year ago and haven’t missed the service. I didn’t even password share but streaming used to be built around sharing it with family members within the household (at university, at the cottage etc). The constant price increases were the nail in the coffin for me as well as the quality of the shows.

 

[til1p]

Tell them it’s time for them to grow up and pay their own cell phone and streaming bills. You are the exact reason why Netflix and Disney have to take these steps!

I think that's a bit aggressively presumptuous. Verizon specifically allows for these types of shared family plans in their terms and conditions. I am pointing out that there is a disparity in what Verizon allows, and what Disney now allows, and that the deal between Verizon and Disney seems to now be muddied resulting in confusion for their joint customers.

 

[brofkand]

I expect studio tie-in [edited] streamers like Paramount and Disney to give up and large distributors like Amazon and Apple to consolidate content. I hope that at least. And if it doesn’t, then yes, I believe competition regulators can step in - that’s their job and when they do it, it’s always good for the consumer (AT&T, automobile distribution, Standard Oil, MS/browser wars).

They’re all trying to get a slice of the consumer’s discretionary budget. It will all come out in the wash. The consumer will only subscribe to so many services.

 

[cocky jeremy]

The EU needs to step in already and let me watch what I want from whatever streaming service!

/s

They should force Disney to let me pay someone else for Disney+! And half the price too. Oh, and they should force them to advertise that I can get Disney+ somewhere else cheaper while we're at it.

 

[Hildy]

So you can have a dozen people in a single home using D+, but if you have two people you cannot use it at the cabin or on vacation? I guess that answers any question I had about signing up.

For what it’s worth I disagree with pirating however subscription lock in is equally deplorable.

Streaming utopia is pay to play where quality content is rewarded by being consumed and priced to compete for viewership.

 

[Techwatcher]

Subscriptions are abused by freeloaders that are poor so this is great news

 

[ehrens]

I still get Disney+ and Apple Music included through my legacy VZW get more (I think that's the name) plan so I don't pay for it.

I have the bundle via my play more plan and got an email saying that's ending with the new price hike so you might want to verify that your standalone plan is not similarly affected.

 

[cgs1xx]

The flaw with these "crackdowns" is they define a household by the wifi network. If you have more than one wifi network and the kids like to watch Netflix on their ipads whilst at their grandparents, it gets very messy quickly.

 

[webkit]

I expect studio tie-in [edited] streamers like Paramount and Disney to give up and large distributors like Amazon and Apple to consolidate content.

If by "large distributors" you also mean cable/satellite TV providers, that's already beginning to happen. Some of these companies are offering bundled/multi streaming service packages on top of their regular plans.

 

[Strellson2024]

In my view, the problem is actually quite simple:

1. If I pay a fee for 4 parallel streams at the same time, I don’t want someone to dictate me where those 4 people who watch at the same time are. It makes no sense to me that 4 people watching in one household on different devices is OK (under those frankly expensive plans) but not, when those 4 people are not in the same building.

2. If someone only has a plan for 1 stream at the same time and shares that login with someone else, it’s a little bit of a different story. Because also here, I am paying that one person can watch 1 stream at any given time. If someone else is using it when I am not using it, this should not be an issue, except of course corporate greed.

Ultimately, with increasing prices for streaming annually or even half-annually, plus people not even being allowed to share their multi-stream plans with whoever they want - do not wonder if piracy will have a massive comeback - people are willing to pay for streaming, but everything has its limits

 

[icanhazmac]

And then Netflix introduces a ‘x’ monthly minimum plan and all the other streamers follow suit!

I can't control what they do in the future but my plan stands for today.

Honestly I don't think they will eliminate a month to month, they will just raise the price and discount yearly plans more... example: 25/month or 15/month if purchasing a full year, no prorated refunds for cancelation.

 

[webkit]

Everyone needs to cancel for a year to get Disneys heads out of their a****. This is completely ridiculous, and I can’t believe Netflix got away with it. We all knew it was coming after that. I don’t even share with anyone outside of my house, but this is still infuriating nonetheless. I’m going back to alternate methods for both now.

Netflix "got away with it" because many people aren't as bothered by it as you seem to be. It's not that outrageous for streaming services to want to limit/control access. Decades ago, when a family subscribed to a premium channel like HBO, Disney, etc. and their child went away to college, that child wasn't able to access those channels (under the same existing subscription) from their college residence either.

 

[webkit]

So you can have a dozen people in a single home using D+, but if you have two people you cannot use it at the cabin or on vacation? I guess that answers any question I had about signing up.

According to the article:

"For those who frequently travel, Disney+ will still allow account holders to access the service when away from home. Users encountering access issues can verify their identity through a one-time passcode sent to the account's associated email address.”

 

[wanha]

pirating hasn't been popular in years cus streaming was cheap and easy. raising the prices and making it more difficult to use will push people back to pirating. Most people these days don't even know what BitTorrent is.

agree completely. Anecdotal evidence indicates to me that more and more people are starting to look into pirating again

 

[canadianreader]

Because they spent close to 200m$ on a show called the Acolyte that has only 8 episodes. Subscribers will pay for that.

 

[kaycrystal626]

I cancel my Netflix when they did this. Now it's Disney's turn! Good way to push me to save money.

 

[Tony_YYZ]

So you don't even have a D+ account now? I guarantee they won't miss your zero income.

Not sure how you came to that conclusion but ok.

 

[mansplains]

Here we go again, another streaming article where members come out of the wood work to promote piracy.

I am no fan of price increases, but you are not entitled to content created by others, if you don't value the content at the advertised price then don't consume it, simple as that.

Eggs went up in price too, did y'all "unsubscribe" from eggs or did you just start stealing them from farms?

I can understand where you’re coming from, but piracy isn’t stealing, it’s copying. When a pirate sails the high seas for the latest series, the content provider still has the source material. It doesn’t parallel stealing eggs as your analogy depicts.

I got burned on piracy years ago and don’t care for it generally speaking. But when you reframe it as copying, it serves purposes other than not paying for content. For instance, I can buy a box set and rip it. It will take several hours. Alternately, I can buy a box set and copy an archive someone else already made. I get my media on my terms, and the publisher receives remuneration.

A reason more people turn to piracy is publishers continuing to worsen (******tify) their subscriber experience. If one can get a better experience from unofficial sources, I’d say the blame is with the publisher, and nothing speaks to them like a drop in revenue.

 

[Bampf]

People are posting angry words about going on vacation, or college students, without first understanding the terms of the plan. (ref: link)

if you’re away from home or on the go, you’ll still be able to watch Disney+ on your supported devices as the account holder or member of your Household.

If you’re on the go and you see the message “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account”, you can mark yourself as I’M AWAY FROM HOME [..]

Note this is MUCH better than Netflix's approach, which I believe requires the device to be brought back to the home network once every 30 days.

Yes, there are limits to # of devices and # of simultaneous watchers. So there are still scenarios that will bug some people.

Anyway it's worth understanding the way it works before deciding how angry to get.

 

[Ankaa]

If no one pays for the content no one gets paid for creating content.

Yeah, no. Those price hikes do not pay the people creating the content. Those price hikes pay the Execs' and shareholders' next car, mansion, yacht.

Let's be realistic here. Those are all companies who are out there trying to maximize profit.

 

[icanhazmac]

Yeah, no. Those price hikes do not pay the people creating the content. Those price hikes pay the Execs' and shareholders' next car, mansion, yacht.

Let's be realistic here. Those are all companies who are out there trying to maximize profit.

That is very easy to say and claim, can you provide citation? Please cite where you received this inside information.

 

[ellpee]

This might not seem unreasonable to you but wait until these evil entities figure out a way to prevent your physical media from being played in more than one device and anything else they can think of to extract as much cash from you as they can.

 

[webkit]

agree completely. Anecdotal evidence indicates to me that more and more people are starting to look into pirating again

Even with the price increases, more and more people are PAYING for subscriptions to streaming services like Netflix.

 

[webkit]

People are posting angry words about going on vacation, or college students, without first understanding the terms of the plan.

That addresses the "on vacation" part (I also mentioned it in a previous post) but I don't’ think it changes the college student away from home long-term issue some have.