Hulu to enforce new restrictions on widespread subscription sharing

Hulu is preparing to crack down on subscribers who share their logins with family, friends and former flings, following similar moves by competitors such as Netflix and Disney+. 

Beginning March 14, Hulu users will only be able to share their account logins with members of their own household, the company said Wednesday in an email to its subscribers. The new policy is already effective for Hulu customers who subscribed on or after Jan. 25.

"We're adding limitations on sharing your account outside of your household, and explaining how we may assess your compliance with these limitations," Hulu said in the email. 

The company added that it would limit or terminate the accounts of users who violate the new rules. Less sharing, more revenue

Hulu plans to curb subscription mooching as part of a broader push to boost its subscriber base and grow its revenue. The platform's average monthly on-demand-only subscriber revenue fell to $12.11 last fall, down 2% compared with the previous quarter, a financial filing from Hulu's parent company Disney shows. During that time, the streaming service lost roughly 100,000 subscribers of its on-demand service, shaving its number of users down to 43.9 million, the document shows. 

Password sharing is very common among consumers: According to a survey from data retrieval firm Secure Data Recovery, 69% of Americans admit to using another person's streaming service account at some point. 

Among Hulu subscribers in the U.S., 51% said they share their login credentials with others, according to a 2023 poll from product review website Reviews.org. That makes Hulu the second most-shared streaming service after Netflix which has a total of 85% U.S. account holders who admit to password sharing. 

Disney stock was trading at $96.89 on Thursday afternoon, up less than 1%.

In:
• Hulu
• Netflix
• Disney+
• Entertainment

Elizabeth Napolitano

Elizabeth Napolitano is a freelance reporter at CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and technology news. She also writes for CoinDesk. Before joining CBS, she interned at NBC News' BizTech Unit and worked on The Associated Press' web scraping team.