Credit: Inside the MagicAs the battle for streaming becomes ever more intense, yet another platform is cracking down and making it harder for subscribers.
Last year, Netflix announced it would finally be cracking down on password sharing between households, making it so that any device using a certain account had to be under the same wifi in the same household as the primary account holder. In addition, the pioneer streaming platform announced the addition of ad-based subscription tiers, reverting back to a marketing strategy that had many leaving cable in the first place so many years ago. Despite consumer outrage at the time, Netflix actually finished 2024 with a record-breaking increase in its subscribers, with a rough estimate of over 260 million subscribers by the end of the year.
Of course, this means good things for Netflix, including increased profits, amid the ongoing streaming war as platforms work to make their model actually profitable and more enticing to audiences. Following Netflix’s announcement of password crackdowns, Disney+ followed suit, announcing it would be implementing its own anti-sharing policies late last summer. Disney’s streaming platform has been struggling since its initial boom in 2019 where it gained more subscribers upon its initial release than any other platform.
However, amid a disappointing 2023 across the board, CEO Bob Iger knew something somewhere had to change and decided to start with its at-home entertainment platform. After losing almost 4 million subscribers in early 2023, Disney+ announced the password-sharing ban, which initially met the same outrage that Netflix’s announcement did. However, according to BankMyCell, Disney+ actually saw an increase in their subscribers from 2022 to 2023, despite the unpopular announcement.
Now, it seems as though yet another platform is enforcing the same policy, as Hulu has informed their subscribers that starting March 14, users will be unable to access the account of someone unless they live in the same household, depending on their subscription tier. Disney+ and Hulu merged their platforms together last year as the Walt Disney Company bought complete rights to the streamer. Iger stated last year that the company would be focusing on “tactics to drive monetization” in 2024, and it seems as though cracking down on sharing accounts is one way to do that.
2023 saw almost every streaming platform increase their prices and introduce ad-based tiers, a move that many equated to the return of cable television, which is what streaming was originally meant to replace. As it’s become clear that platforms like Hulu and Disney+ aren’t profitable on subscriptions alone, the move to pushing ads and other marketing tactics seems to have swept the industry alongside a concerning trend of wiping less-than-stellar content.
Disney+, Warner Bros./Max, and Paramount+ all canceled a variety of shocking projects last year, even going so far as to remove some of these shows and movies from their streaming platforms completely. It raised eyebrows as many started to question the legality of these moves, especially when it was revealed that Warner Bros. had decided to cancel Coyote vs. Acme, a Looney Tunes film starring John Cena that had completed production, and drew calls for legal investigation.
It’s a definitive moment for the streaming industry with the new changes and push for profit over quality or consumer experience. With Hulu now adding to the mix of platforms cracking down on password sharing, it remains to be seen just how the Disney platform will fare throughout 2024.
Do you have a Hulu account or do you share one? Will you keep your subscription after the new change? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!