2023 in review: Streaming shakeups, price hikes and crackdowns

The direct-to-consumer streaming world took a big turn in 2023. Gone are the days of acquiring subscribers at any cost as streamers turned their focus and attention to profitability and churn reduction.

That shift in strategy brought on plenty of changes, including a litany of rate hikes, streaming app integrations and a much bigger focus on mitigating password sharing.

Rate hikes arrived almost across the board, touching services such as HBO Max (which became the super-sized Max streaming service later in the year), Netflix, Apple TV, Paramount+ and Peacock. Amazon also got into the act by announcing that its baseline Prime Video service would become ad-supported and require customers to pay more for the ad-free experience they were accustomed to.

App integrations, content aggregation and bundling also came into sharper focus during the year. A prime example was Disney's beta launch of a unified app that combined Disney+ with Hulu's subscription video-on-demand (VoD) library ahead of a broader rollout expected in March 2024. Another was Paramount Global's launch of a Paramount+ service plan that weaves in Showtime.

Operators also got into the mix. Charter Communications started to make the Xumo Stream Box, a product from the Comcast-Charter Communications joint venture, its go-to platform for new video subscribers and – after a brief blackout – cut a new deal with Disney that enabled Charter to bundle apps into its pay-TV platform.

And the days of a free lunch in streaming are coming to an end as Netflix expanded its crackdown on password sharing and Disney started to develop its own password policies.

It appears that streaming is here to stay as consumers' purchases and rentals of physical media head toward possible extinction. That trend was marked by Netflix's decision to winddown its DVD distribution business.

Below is a recap of some of 2023's twists and turns in the streaming world: