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Disney Eliminating Disney+ Password Sharing Starting in September
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Streaming services are able to see both the IP address you’re streaming from but also a device-specific ID like the MAC address or another ID. If you take your iPad or laptop on vacation and watch on your hotel’s WiFi the service knows it’s your device just at a different location. Where it gets dicey is if you’re on a long-term trip (military deployment, business assignment, etc.) and using this remote location for weeks/months on end.Just to be clear it is not password sharing when I watch using my phone over cellular or I watch using Wi-Fi or I watch using Apple TV using cellular hotspot or watch using Wi-Fi or watch using my computer through hotspot or watch using Wi-Fi or using my iPad via hotspot or Wi-Fi, still using the same account when I go over to my brother’s house and airplay it to his Apple TV or go to work and use my computer at work to watch. All those are the same user and the same account using half a dozen different Internet connections, they better not interrupt my viewing ability.
I haven’t begun to cover the three other user accounts in my family doing the same thing.
Will vote with my $$ as these streaming just don't work for me (pretty low use) if my plan can't be shared. In my case with my elderly mother who also is very low use. Limiting a subscription like this to a physical household is just archaic. This isn't electricity, or water, or gas, or even cable that requires physical infrastructure at a location. Instead it should be limited to simultaneous number of streams or even a cap on content hours a month etc regardless of where it is streamed from as the infrastructure is on the server side. Two people who watch maybe 10/15 hours a month each shouldn't have to pay more (in some cases twice as much) as a "household" that watch several hundreds of hours a month. Hopefully there will be some tipping point where these streaming services will have to offer different types of plans. I know that hasn't happened yet with the services that have gone that route.
/rant
/rant
If only we all got pay increases like our subscriptions raise their prices.
Yo ho, a pirate life for me 😜
Yo ho, a pirate life for me 😜
This will really mess up college students going back to school. If they started in August and let everyone set their "home base" while home, they might be able to get away with using it while away at school. Now the crackdown starts while they're away. What a mess.
And lot of people just clicked that unsubscribe button.
I’m sure that eventually streaming companies will require commitment contract a la Adobe Creative Cloud where users are required to stay signed up for one year or pay a huge penalty to unsubscribe.
And what of those who have the disney+, espn, hulu package with their verizon account? Was told back when this was setup that it was one disney account for all the verizon users. What will they do with those?
I quit Disney+ when they pulled a bait and switch on me and changed me from the "Regular" plan (previously the only plan with no ads, 4 screens, and 4K) to the Basic plan (1080p, ads, two screens), telling me I needed to pay more if I wanted the benefits I previously enjoyed. Quit Netflix when they likewise increased their prices to over $20 a month and cracked down on password sharing, meaning I could no longer share my plan with my family.
Been using a Synology NAS and Plex with no complaints.
Unless they change things, after a year off you should be eligible again. It's my turn this time around, but so far I can't think of anything I'd want to watch. Maybe "Over the Garden Wall," again.
edit: think I need to finally buy that BD drive and prepare for the closeout sales.
Can’t wait for everyone to predict the collapse of Disney+ and acting like this wasn’t a massive success for Netflix.
I think sooner or later, they will put a cap on how much you can watch per month. For example, for popular TV shows, you are only allowed to watch up to 4 episodes for each season every month.
For movies, you are only allowed to watch 40 hours every month. Or new releases require consecutive subscriptions to watch.
Why? this is to discourage people from binge watching.
For movies, you are only allowed to watch 40 hours every month. Or new releases require consecutive subscriptions to watch.
Why? this is to discourage people from binge watching.
shiver me timbers, what ever shall we do to mitigate
One idea I have to discourage churn is to make the first month cost more than the subsequent months. Right now, you pay the same price every month. What if the first month of Disney+ cost, say, $20, with each subsequent month costing less (like $10). It operates similar to the sunk cost fallacy. Like you have already paid so much for the first month, feels like a waste to have to terminate and reset your subscription every time.
I've done away with the subs and embraced the free channels i get with Google TV on my Sony! Been watching Unsolved Mysteries and Baywatch reruns😄
Exactly…
I seriously don’t understand how working people find the time to watch all this TV (maybe by spending less time on Macrumors than me… hm). I do watch TV though, I just made a simple conscious decision: Since I can’t watch everything anyway, I stopped wasting my time with ads. I don’t have access to a single service or TV channel with ads, period. I still have more good things to watch than I have time for.
And yes, I spend about as much on services as I would for cable. But, I make up for it by not buying all the crap that I don’t know exists, since I don’t watch ads!
Interesting theory, but that just disincentivises new sign ups.
Many services have bonuses for signing up in the first place; extra points; free first month etc. Apparently it works because companies keep offering it.
I'd imagine doing the opposite may have the opposite effect.
What they should really do; is honour legacy plans/prices.
Someone with a grandfathered $6.99/month premium plan will be allowed to stay on that rate until they cancel their plan. Suddenly this person's locked in for life because they know if htey cancel it; it'll cost $15.99 or whatever to sign up for it again.
Was fun while it lasted. Hate how streaming services are turning into expensive cable again, something only rich people and pirates can afford.
So if they get new subscribers after the elimination of password sharing, should we expect prices to decrease?
It only make sense, right? Right?
It only make sense, right? Right?
Yeah, I am thinking the same thing. Eventually some kind of disincentive for constantly jumping from service to service will emerge. Anything to maximize subscription numbers.