We have known for several months now that the streaming platform Disney+ is preparing to follow Netflix and also put an end to shared accounts. And today we are closer than ever to this fateful day, since the Disney service has just informed its users of the date of launch of new restrictions: March 14.
The end of sharing in March
In an email sent last week to subscribers of Hulu, an American streaming service also owned by The Walt Disney Company, the company announced that the platform would from this date “add limitations on sharing your account outside of your household”. A deployment which will undoubtedly also concern the “mother platform” Disney+.
Last September, Disney had already updated its conditions of use, and in particular added the notion of household, as is the case with Netflix. A first step which then confirmed that it was not “no longer possible to share your subscription outside of this said household”this being defined as “all devices associated with your personal residence that are used by the people who reside there”.
If you can still share your Disney+ account today, this will no longer be the case from March 2024. Disney+ also reserves the right to make decisions regarding your account, if it realizes that you are violating these restrictions , as Hulu’s terms of service state:
“If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service, and take any other action permitted by this Agreement”.
This date of March 14 currently concerns American users of Disney+ and Hulu. If confirmation is still awaited concerning French subscribers, there is no doubt that this should more or less correspond to what was announced to our American cousins.
Since its launch in 2019, Disney+ has suffered losses of nearly $11 billion, and is in urgent need of reviewing its model. In addition to these future account restrictions, the platform has implemented a new price list and a cheaper subscription with advertising.
A strategy modeled on that of Netflix, and which aims to increase the number of subscribers, which is currently stagnating at around 150 million worldwide.