Thought your shared Hulu account was safe? Think again. The streamer has become the latest to police password sharing, joining competitors like Netflix and Disney+.
The streamer sent out a message to subscribers this morning in which it outlined updates to its Subscriber Agreement, per Deadline. The particular changes included “limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how [they] may assess your compliance with these limitations.”
In other words, if you’re using a Hulu account from an ex or parents you don’t live with anymore, your days of streaming The Bear may be limited.
The updated agreement states that users may not lend their account to people outside of their “household” — defined as “the collection of devices associated with your primary personal residence that are used by the individuals who reside therein” — “unless otherwise permitted by your Service Tier.”
If Hulu finds that a user has violated its new terms, they “may limit or terminate access” to a user’s account, per the terms outlined in the message that went out to subscribers earlier today.
These changes are already in effect for those who joined Hulu since Jan. 25. For “prior and existing subscribers,” the update will become official on March 14, unless users “acknowledge an in-app notice of these changes earlier.”
Hulu is technically late to the great password sharing crackdown. The streamer is following Netflix and Disney+, who changed their password sharing policies last spring and last fall, respectively. Netflix fared particularly well after the changes went into effect: the platform gained nearly six million new subscribers in the subsequent months.
Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO, revealed during a quarterly earnings call last August that the company was “actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
The beta launch for the “one-app experience” combining Hulu and Disney+ — both of which are owned by Disney — took place toward the end of last year. The app’s combined library is projected to hold one third of the U.S.’s most popular titles, per an Ampere Analysis report published by Deadline in December. According to USA Today’s Reviewed, the app will formally launch this March.
