Hulu has sent an email to subscribers informing them that the streaming service will be cracking down on password sharing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
- Hulu’s email, which went out to subscribers today, notified of an updated subscriber agreement that explicitly bars sharing accounts outside of the user’s household:
- “Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household. ‘Household’ means the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.”
- The new agreement will take effect starting March 12.
- The agreement goes on to inform subscribers of potential consequences of a violation of this new rule:
- “We may, in our sole discretion, analyze the use of your account to determine compliance with this Agreement. If we determine, in our sole discretion, that you have violated this Agreement, we may limit or terminate access to the Service and/or take any other steps as permitted by this Agreement.”
- The new Hulu agreement offers similar language to the Disney+ subscriber agreement sent late last year.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an earnings call last year that these password sharing rules would be coming:
- “We’re actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family. We will roll out tactics to drive monetization sometime in 2024.”
- Disney+ initially made the change after Netflix did last year. The streaming powerhouse has since reported two consecutive quarters with subscriber growth.
- Hulu launched in 2008 but had never explicitly barred the sharing of accounts outside of households until now.