- Disney+ Hotstar has reportedly been testing a feature to limit devices count to four for premium accounts.
- Currently, Disney+ Hotstar allows logins on as many as 10 devices for premium users.
- The new restriction will also apply to its cheaper plan, which will limit the usage across two devices.
Leading streaming platform, Disney+ Hotstar is reportedly planning on introducing a new policy that would limit paying subscribers to log in on only four of their devices. As per sources familiar with the matter, this is aimed at limiting password sharing in India. The move comes just a few days after Netflix announced it was limiting password sharing in the country.
Disney+ Hotstar to limit account sharing to four devices
- At the moment, the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service allows users to log in on as many as 10 devices though the website says that the “number of devices that can be logged in” into one account is four.
- According to a report by Reuters, Disney+ Hotstar has been testing a feature to limit devices count to four for premium accounts.
- With the new log-in restriction in place, customers might look into buying their own Disney+ Hotstar subscription plan.
- The new restriction will apply to cheaper Disney+ Hotstar plans as well, which will limit the usage to two devices.
- Disney+ Hotstar has declined to comment on the development at the moment.
Hotstar originally believed that not allowing users to share passwords would eventually push them to get their own accounts, sources told Reuters. Another source said that the streaming service did not restrict account-sharing policy so far because it did not want to trouble premium users and that there were only around 5 percent of subscribers who logged in from more than four devices.
Besides limiting account access, Walt Disney is also in initial discussions to explore options of selling the Indian wing of its India digital and TV business or looking for a joint venture partner, a source told Reuters.
Industry data says Hotstar is a leading streaming platform in India with approximately 50 million user base. The streaming service topped the market in India between January 2022 and March 2023 with a 38 percent share of viewership, while rivals Netflix and Prime Video held 5 percent each, according to the data from research firm Media Partners Asia showed.
Hotstar, Netflix, Amazon, and JioCinema have become highly popular in India and are set to become a USD 7 billion (nearly Rs 57,530 crore) market for the sector by 2027, as per the Media Partners Asia estimates.
