Internet video streaming provider Disney+ has, following earlier hints and a new subscriber agreement, finally joined Netflix by cracking down on password sharing through the introduction of a new ‘Paid Sharing‘ (Extra Member) service, which is indirectly intended to make it more difficult to share your account with people outside your household.
In the past, streaming providers often tolerated password sharing and saw it as a way of helping to drum up publicity / support for their service. But Netflix has since shown that it’s more lucrative to restrict the practice and instead offer those who do it a paid alternative to achieve the same outcome, albeit often without needing to pay full whack for a subscription.
The new ‘Paid Sharing’ features and capabilities are now said to be available in the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region after launching in select markets over the summer. But at the time of writing, we couldn’t see this is active on their UK service (we have queried this), but it’s no doubt imminent given that the UK is a part of Europe and has the same terms.
Disney+ states that a subscription to their service is “meant to be used within your Household, which is a collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside there“. But if you want to add people outside of your household, then the newly sanctioned way to do that – short of having them pay for their own subscription – will be by adding an ‘Extra Member‘ to your account.
The new Extra Member service naturally attracts an additional monthly charge, which according to details on their website will cost £3.99 extra for Disney+ Standard with Ads or £4.99 extra for either Disney+ Standard or Premium. But one key point here is that the Extra Member feature is NOT available for Disney Bundle subscribers or for subscribers billed through their partners at this time (i.e. if you’ve got Disney+ billed and bundled via a broadband ISP or mobile operator plan, then you can’t yet take advantage of this).
Customers will also still be able to watch Disney+ if they’re away from home (e.g. holiday, commuting etc.). In that scenario you’ll now see the message: “This TV doesn’t seem to be part of the Household for this account”, you can then mark yourself as I’M AWAY FROM HOME, or select UPDATE HOUSEHOLD if you’ve recently moved and need to reset the Household location for your subscription. But these selections will require a one-time passcode that’s sent to the email address associated with the account.
Disney+ will also allow password sharing users from outside your “household” to sign-up for their own subscription by allowing the ability to transfer an eligible profile to a new subscription or Extra Member to keep that profile’s Disney+ watch history and settings. But certain profiles – including primary profiles (account holders), minors’ profiles, and those set to Junior Mode – cannot currently be transferred.