Disney+ And Hulu Price Hikes Are Coming And So Is A Crackdown On Password Sharing

Disney+ looks to join Netflix in combating password sharing as the company announces it will actively explore ways to address account sharing. Along with the pushback against account sharing, both Disney+ and Hulu will be bumping up the cost of their service plans in October.

Netflix has been making the headlines recently, as the company took a controversial stance against account sharing. The streaming service noted that it was losing money hand over fist due to customers sharing passwords with family and friends and needed to do something to stay afloat. As other companies watched on the sidelines, Netflix launched its new enforcement policy prohibiting the sharing of passwords with others outside of the immediate household. Now, Disney+ is moving in the same direction with its own plan to thwart password sharing projected to begin sometime in 2024.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said Disney would be taking a proactive stance against password sharing, remarking the company is "actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family."

The CEO also announced that both Disney+ and Hulu would be seeing price hikes in a couple of months. The ad-free Disney+ premium tier is said to be increasing to $13.99 on October 12, 2023. Hulu's ad-free tier is also expected to be increased by $3, pushing it to $17.99 a month for a standalone subscription. ESPN+ will also rise by $1 per month to $10.99, Hulu and Live TV with ads will go from $76.99 per month to $82.99, and the ad-free plan will increase to $89.99 per month. For those who want to keep the Disney+ and Hulu bundle without ads, they will be able to do so at a discounted rate of just $19.99 per month.

Iger also stated in an earnings call yesterday, "We took a pretty significant price increase at Disney+ sometime late in 2022, and we really didn't see significant churn or loss of subs because of that, which was actually heartening."

The Disney CEO added that it was deliberately attempting to steer customers toward its ad-supported services by keeping some of those prices the same. He stated that about 40% of new Disney+ subscribers have signed up for the ad-supported tier.