Do you use Movies Anywhere, the service that lets you buy a movie one service and watch it on many others? The Disney-owned Movies Anywhere service today announced that it will be shutting down a popular feature.
Screen Pass allows Movies Anywhere users to give someone access to their favorite movie without losing it. In short, it was a way for friends to share their digital movie collections with friends. Now though, that will be shutting down for good soon.
According to Movies Anywhere, on May 1st, 2023, users will no longer be able to send a Screen Pass to a friend. On June 1st, the Screen Pass Cheature will no longer be supported.
Here is a statement from Movie Pass about the end of Screen Pass:
At Movies Anywhere™, we are continually making changes to the website and app to help our users enjoy and grow their collections.
As the experience continues to evolve, we want to notify you that effective May 1 users will no longer be able to use the Screen Pass™ feature to send a Screen Pass. For Screen Passes sent prior to May 1, recipients will still be able to accept and finish watching the movie before their passes expire. As of June 1, the Screen Pass feature will no longer be supported.
We are committed to focusing on an experience which highlights the things our users are most passionate about, primarily growing their collections and watching their favorite movies across platforms and devices.
Exactly why this feature is ending is unknown, but the cost of the service is likely not worth the limited number of people who used it. With most people subscribing to services to watch movies, the number of customers buying digital movies has been decreasing recently. This may be part of why Disney is shutting down Screen Pass.
Movies Anywhere will still work, and you will still be able to buy a movie on one service and stream it on others. The only thing shutting down is the ability to lend out your movies.