You Will No Longer Be Able to Share Your Disney Plus Password

• Disney is expected to launch its first crackdown on password sharing in June
• User sharing passwords outside of their households will have to pay additional fees
• This move comes after Disney's long-drawn proxy battle with activist investor Nelson Peltz

In a candid interview with CNBC, Disney CEO, Bob Iger spoke in detail about Disney's future plans for becoming a growth-driven' company. One of these measures included cracking down on password sharing, just like Netflix had done.

Disney had already sent emails to its US subscribers in early February, informing them of its updated terms of service.

These password-sharing restrictions will be imposed only in a few countries in June, before being expanded to cover all subscribers in September.

Just like Netflix, subscribers will have to pay additional fees for sharing their passwords outside their household. However, no clear definition of household' has been put forward by the company yet.

Netflix saw its subscriber count swell by 22 million during the last six months of 2023 after it announced a ban on password sharing in May.

In fact, Iger was full of praise for Netflix in his interview. He said that Netflix is the gold standard' in the streaming industry and it would be great if Disney could replicate what Netflix has done right.

Read more: Hulu and Disney+ lose subscribers as Netflix continues dominating the market

Other Measures Outlined by Iger

When Iger came back as Disney's CEO in November 2022, the losses were around $4 billion dollars a year, which wasn't sustainable and acceptable.

Iger's first goal was to reduce these losses. As per him, Disney's losses stood at around $130 million in the last quarter, which is definitely a huge improvement.

Iger also expects Disney to turn profitable in the fiscal fourth quarter this year. Here's how they plan to do it:

• Increasing the consumer spending time on the platform is one of the major goals for Iger right now. For this, they have launched a new product - Hulu on Disney Plus, which allows subscribers access to more content
• More consumer watch time will help the platform improve its recommendation engines. Iger also stressed the importance of strong local programming outside of the US.
• Iger touched upon the importance of reducing the cost of marketing and the cost of customer acquisitions to boost their profit margins. Talking about targets, Disney is putting in all the effort to turn their margins into double digits.

Disney's Battle with Nelson Peltz

The announcement comes one day after shareholders reelected Disney's 13-member board of directors, including CEO Bob Iger.

Nelson Peltz, an activist investor, and a Disney shareholder, had made some acquisitions against the company.

• Nelson accused Disney of not working on an active succession plan since 2011.
• He also questioned the poor financial performance (evidenced by their losses) and operational mismanagement.
• As a result, he sought two positions on the board of directors of the company - one for himself and one for Jay Rasulo.

However, his efforts fell in vain during Disney's annual shareholders meeting. As per reports, 94% of votes were in Iger's support. Retail shareholders outvoted Nelson in a ratio of 75-25.

In an interview shortly after the defeat, Nelson welcomed the shareholder verdict and said that Iger would not hear from him if he kept all his promises and does what needs to be done.

Iger also took a dig at Nelson Peltz in an interview post the vote. He said that Peltz did not bring any new ideas and his contributions to the company would not have been positive, had he been elected to the board.

Iger also said that Disney had formed a committee shortly after his return to look into the succession issue. The committee has been meeting regularly to ensure a smooth transition in the company's higher management.

The battle seems to be over for the time being. However, if Disney does not work on its profits and succession plans, Nelson might make another attempt to get on the board next year.

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