Hulu will mirror the moves of its streaming rivals by cracking down on password sharing and forcing irate customers to pledge to obtain content from pirated websites.
Hulu posted: We revised our terms of service on Wednesday. It informed users that they are prohibited from sharing their passwords outside of their “primary personal residence.”
According to revised subscription terms, subscribers must comply with new legislation by March 14th.
“We’re adding limits on sharing your account outside your household and explaining how we evaluate compliance with these limits,” Hulu told subscribers in an email.
Hulu, which is owned by Disney, told customers it will “analyze account usage” and reserves the right to “limit or terminate access” if it determines that policies have been violated.
The Post has reached out to Hulu for comment.
Some Hulu users took to social media and vowed to resort to piracy to get content for free.
“I’m going to cancel Hulu and watch Netflix too. Hmm. Enough is enough,” wrote one X user.
Another X user wrote: The popularity of piracy is about to explode again. ”
Hulu hopes the crackdown will have the same effect as Netflix, which reported a surge in subscribers after banning password sharing on its own last year.
Media giants are raising subscription prices for their streaming services as audiences become increasingly fragmented and viewership numbers shrink.
Ad-free Hulu now costs $17.99 per month, an increase of $3, while ad-free Disney+ now costs $13.99 per month.
Disney also increased the price of its ESPN+ monthly subscription by $1 to $10.99.
wall street journal reported last week Customer cancellations across streaming services rose 6.3% in November, up from 5.1% a year earlier.
Netflix rolled out an ad-supported lower price tier that helped the company gain nearly 6 million subscribers last spring.
Netflix reported last week that subscriber growth accelerated for the third straight quarter in the final three months of 2023.
Netflix gained 13.1 million subscribers worldwide in the October-December period, far exceeding analyst expectations.
With customer growth, Netflix will have more than 260 million subscribers worldwide by the end of 2023, growing by nearly 30 million each year.
Last year’s performance was in contrast to the 8.9 million subscriber increase expected in 2022. The lackluster results raised questions about whether the video streaming pioneer was losing momentum as competition for viewers intensified.
Disney Plus began cracking down on password sharing in late December.
It’s unclear how that affected subscriber numbers.
with post wire
