Key Takeaways
- Disney+ is starting with its crackdown on password sharing, charging $7-10 for additional users outside the household.
- You can only add one extra slot per account and cannot transfer primary or kids’ profiles.
- To stream Disney+ outside your household, you might need to mark yourself away from home with a code.
In recent years, streaming services have become significantly more expensive due to several price hikes. They have also cracked down on password sharing, forcing you to pay for your own account instead of leeching off your friend’s account. In August 2023, following in Netflix’s footsteps, Disney announced it would soon start cracking down on account sharing. Later, in September, it revealed the policy would go live in Canada initially, beginning November 2023. Ten months later, the Disney+ password-sharing crackdown is expanding to more markets, with the company detailing how much an extra seat will cost.
Disney explains in its announcement that your Disney+ subscription is meant for use “within your Household.” So, if someone tries to log in to Disney+ using your credentials from another location, they must create their own account. Or you’ll have to purchase an additional slot for them on your account. In the US, this extra seat will cost $7 per month for a Disney+ Basic subscription, while the Premium subscription will cost $10. This member will be limited to streaming on one device at any given time, though they will have access to the entire Disney+ content catalog.
Disney is only allowing one additional slot per account. So, if multiple people are leeching off your Disney+ account, they will have to get their own separate accounts. To make this easier, Disney will provide an option to transfer profiles to another account, allowing users to carry over their watch history and preferences. However, the migration option is not available for an account’s primary and kids’ profiles.
As of now, if you are paying for Disney+ through your carrier or cable bundle, you cannot purchase an add-on seat for your account.
Streaming Disney+ outside your Household also gets complicated
Disney+ will allow you to stream content on devices outside your Household. But you might see a message saying, “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account.” To bypass this, you must mark yourself away from home, which will require entering a one-time code sent to the linked email account.
The extra member add-on is rolling out to Disney+ subscribers in the US, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific.
These changes from Disney+ come days before its latest price hike goes live in the US. The increase will bump the monthly price of the Disney+ Basic subscription with ads by $2 to $10, while the Premium tier without ads will cost $16.
