2024 is not the year to stream Disney+ on someone else's dime. During an April interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed the company would begin cracking down on password sharing in select countries, before blocking the practice entirely by September. Iger then reiterated this September deadline in a Q3 earnings call in August. Technically, this policy has been in place for new subscribers since Jan. 25, and March 14 for existing customers. The news is that Disney plans to actually enforce its rules in the announced timeline.
It's a frustrating announcement for many subscribers, and not just the ones who want to watch Disney content on someone else's account. There are plenty of users who have unconventional jobs, schedules, and situations that don't fit the mold of the customer who watches Disney+ from the same home every day of their lives. Companies like Disney and Netflix might not care about that, as long as they can show that more people are signing up for their services. But don't feel the pressure to give the Mouse any more money than you already have: If Disney+'s password sharing rules work like we think they do, you might be able to keep streaming for free without too many issues.
How do Disney's password sharing restrictions work?
While we now have more information about when Disney plans to crack down on password sharing, the company is still being pretty vague about how it will enforce its new rules. The terms of service say Disney can “analyze the use of your account to determine compliance," and also defines how the policy applies to users:
Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. "Household" means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein. Additional usage rules may apply for certain Service Tiers.
That's similar language to Netflix's policy, the company that kicked off all this bullshit. As a refresher, Netflix treats the TV you sign into your account with as the basis for the household. All devices then need to connect to that household's wifi when signing into Netflix in order to get a pass. Of course, you aren't limited to just your actual house for streaming Netflix: These devices need to stream Netflix on your household's wifi at least once a month, but can otherwise stream Netflix from anywhere you want.
If you want to pay to have someone outside your household watch your Netflix account, you'll need to pay an extra $7.99 per month. While there's no word on whether Disney+ will follow the same strategy, it's entirely possible. The company recently raised prices for both its ad-supported and ad-free tiers, so a hypothetical charge for adding an outside viewer to your account would drive the monthly costs up to new highs.
How to get around Disney+ password sharing rules
If Disney takes a similar approach to cracking down on password sharing, it'll be relatively easy to get around the rules. Assuming you live near the person whose account you're borrowing, bring your devices over to their house at least once a month and stream a few seconds from any Disney+ or Hulu show or movie. Disney+ will "remember" your device, thinking it's part of the household for the account. So, when you go back to your house, or anywhere outside the account holder's home, you shouldn't have issues streaming, at least for another 30 days or so.
If you primarily stream Disney+ on a smart TV, that will obviously be trickier—but if you are able to authenticate your tablet or phone once a month, you should then be able to cast that stream to your TV, so you can enjoy that sweet purloined content on the big screen.
If Disney has some other way to determine whether you're in compliance with the new rules, we'll update this piece to address those tactics. But for now, I expect this is how things will go. After all, no one is going to pay for a separate Disney+ subscription when they take a trip: There needs to be a way for paying customers to stream outside of their home wifi, which means there will be a way for some of us to take advantage of that loophole.