Hulu and ESPN+ will crack down on password sharing, following Disney+
Disney+ is cementing its password-sharing crackdown, bringing the policy to ESPN+ and Hulu – the latter of which is soon merging with Disney.
Hulu subscribers received an email announcing the ban on Wednesday, with the company saying it will be “adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household.”
This week, Hulu’s Terms of Service was updated to reflect the company’s new approach: “Unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier, you may not share your subscription outside of your household,” the ToS states, defining a household as “the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein.”
The changes are set to be implemented starting on March 14.
The user agreements for Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ each explicitly prevent impersonating another person by using their account and password. Last updated on January 25, the agreement states: “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.”
As CNN points out, it is unclear when the language surrounding password-sharing was added to the agreements of Disney+ and ESPN+.
Already, Disney began restricting password-sharing towards the end of 2023, imposing the rule on the company’s Canada-based subscribers. Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed his intentions to stop password sharing back in August 2023, likely following in Netflix’s footsteps.
“We certainly have established this as a real priority,” Iger said on the subject of password-sharing during Disney’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call. “We actually think that there’s an opportunity here to help us grow our business.”
Since Netflix propelled the no-password-sharing initiative, the streaming service announced a bump in subscribers, with its user base hitting 247 million globally.