Netflix’s password crackdown is working, and now it’s contagious. Hulu and Disney+ are doing it, too

It’s about to get tougher for viewers to share logins on more popular streaming services. The Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ trio will now disallow users from sharing passwords outside of their households.

On Wednesday, subscribers of Disney-owned Hulu received an email informing them that, starting March 14, the company would start adding “limitations on sharing your account outside of your household.” The company also revised its Terms of Service to explicitly ban password sharing outside of “your primary personal residence.”

User agreements for Disney+ and ESPN+, as well as Hulu, all now state that users may not share passwords outside of their own home. “You agree not to impersonate or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity, including using another person’s username, password or other account information, or another person’s name or likeness, or provide false details for a parent or guardian,” the agreement terms say. The new terms were first reported by CNN.

Last summer, Disney CEO Bob Iger told Wall Street analysts during an earnings call that the company “will begin to update our subscriber agreements with additional terms and our sharing policies.” Disney+ began the process last year.

Hulu and Disney+ have begun merging, though you can still access a Hulu account independently of the bundled offers. It’s likely that Disney will soon own all of Hulu.

Given password sharing is fairly common for streaming services, customers aren’t likely to be thrilled. But it’s not all that surprising of a move on Disney’s part. Last year, Netflix made the same change and saw a big return: In just a couple of months, the streaming platform added millions of global customers. By the end of 2023, it had over 200 million subscribers. Last week, the company announced that in the most recent quarter it added 13 million subscribers.

To that end, it makes sense for other streaming giants to follow suit, and it seems like they mean business. In the email Hulu sent to subscribers, the company noted that “we may assess your compliance with these limitations.” It’s unclear how the company plans to measure compliance, but the note said it will “analyze the use of your account” and asserted the right to “limit or terminate access” if the policy isn’t adhered to.

Basically, password sharing on streaming apps feels like it’s about to come to a gradual halt. So if you’ve been logging into your friend’s, mom’s, or friend’s mom’s Hulu, Disney+, or ESPN+, it’s about time to get your own, or risk losing access.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91021623/netflix-password-sharing-crackdown-is-contagious-hulu-disney-espn?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

Creată 1y | 1 feb. 2024, 20:30:02


Autentifică-te pentru a adăuga comentarii

Alte posturi din acest grup

Slash uses AI to build custom banking tools for niche industries

A fintech company called Slash offers business banking accounts tailored to the needs of specific kinds of entrepreneurs.

Slash provides business che

20 mai 2025, 18:30:05 | Fast company - tech
Space tourism’s rise challenges how we define astronauts and exploration

On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin launched six women—Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle Ki

20 mai 2025, 18:30:04 | Fast company - tech
Google’s AI Mode goes prime time, a direct answer to ChatGPT Search

Google is rapidly expanding its AI search capabilities, as reflected in the announcements it made Tuesday at its Google I/O developer conference. The search giant announced the general availabilit

20 mai 2025, 18:30:03 | Fast company - tech
Beyond Imagination raises $100 million to build humanoid robots

A humanoid robotics startup co-founded by prominent artificial-intelligence futurist Ray Kurzweil said on Tuesday that ven

20 mai 2025, 16:10:04 | Fast company - tech
The environmental impact of LLMs: Here’s how OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Anthropic stack up

The companies behind AI models are keen to share granular data about their performance on benchmarks that demonstrate how well they operate. What they are less eager to disclose is information abo

20 mai 2025, 11:30:05 | Fast company - tech
Agentic AI is the future of customer service. Here’s how you need to prepare for it

Twenty-four-hour customer support with zero hold time, infinite personalization, customized care, and behavior-based response are all aspects of the customer experience that will be expected soone

20 mai 2025, 11:30:04 | Fast company - tech
Microsoft launched Copilot+ PCs a year ago to mockery. Is the world finally ready for them?

A year ago today, Microsoft unveiled what it believed would be the future of home computing.

20 mai 2025, 11:30:03 | Fast company - tech