Disney+ says bibbidi bobbidi bye to password sharing
Disney+ is the happiest place on earth, as long as your entire family uses the same wifi network and no one lives in a college dorm or any other castle, tower, or pumpkin coach. That's right; the dreaded password-sharing crackdown has finally come for the Mouse House, with changes beginning to roll out as early as yesterday.
"This week, Disney+ expanded its paid sharing program to give its users ways to enjoy their Disney+ subscription along with a family member or friend, through the management of devices within a household," a blog posted today on the update cheerily opened, as if paying more money was actually a boon to subscribers. (Good one, Bob Iger.) Under the new plan, users under the basic (with ads) tier will be able to add a single extra member to their household for $6.99 per month, while premium, ad-free users can add an extra person for $9.99 per month. The blog notes that there's only one "extra member slot" per account, which means that the Incredibles, for example, would have to buy at least two more subscriptions when their kids go off to college. The toys would have had to buy their own subscription when they left Andy's house. Only the giant Encanto family, who all live in that one house together, would be spared.
It's not just the crackdown; the company first announced that on an earnings call last month, maybe to give people time to say fuck it and just buy their own account instead of negotiating for the one slot with their ex-roommate or whoever. Disney+ is also raising its subscription prices starting October 17, with basic going from $7.99/month to $9.99/month, and premium going from $13.99/month to $15.99/month.
This all worked very nicely for Netflix, who said people were kind of just too lazy and desensitized to cancel their subscriptions after their own crackdown last year. Fellow subscribers: we can't keep letting them win! The blog post doesn't specify any specific consequences for skimming off someone else's account, beside the fact that it might pick up on your wifi location and block the player. If that happens, it's a great excuse to just cancel altogether and bring back good old fashioned group movie/TV nights to watch Agatha All Along anyway. In the immortal words of Newsies, a musical you can watch with all your friends in someone's living room using only one Disney+ account, "Tell those with power safe in their tower we will not obey!"