Gone are the days when people get to save on subscription fees by splitting it with other households or freeloading on someone else's account. Following Netflix and Disney+, Max, formerly known as HBO Max, will prevent password-sharing soon as well.
Max's Crackdown on Password Sharing
It was only a matter of time before other streaming services implemented bans on password sharing, especially since it hurts the number of paying subscribers. No one can watch Netflix or Disney+ for free anymore, and before the year is over, the same can be said for Max.
Warner Bros. Discovery, like the other mentioned services, will prevent users from streaming content outside of the primary household, which is where the main user who pays for the service resides. The ultimate goal, of course, would be to encourage others to sign up for their own account.
The entertainment giant's CEO and President of Global Streaming JB Perrette announced the crackdown during a conference, stating that the efforts will begin later this year and will see heavier implementation by 2025, as reported by Engadget.
So far, Max has been doing well with its subscriber count. In 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery had about 97.7 million collective subscribers for Max, Discovery+, and HBO on cable, which shows an increase of 1.8 million paying users from the previous quarter.
While the upcoming crackdown is already official, the company has yet to disclose how the policy will be handled. It will likely ask main account holders to assign a primary household and begin logging out devices outside of the designated area.
Max could also follow in Netflix's footsteps and charge the primary account holder for having an account open outside of the assigned IP address. There's still some time left before account borrowers have to surrender their access, but it won't be for long.
It Could Be an Effective Strategy
Password sharing crackdowns seem like a policy that may dissuade users from subscribing to a streaming service, but Netflix has proven that it has been an effective way to drive subscriber counts up, as it claimed to have more users after the change was conducted.
Netflix began banning password sharing in the US in May 2023, which slowly rolled out to other countries as well. By October 2023, it claims that the strategy is working as it gained 8.8 million more subscribers in the span of three months.
The number of subscribers gained was even higher than anticipated with an expected growth of just 2.4 million, as reported by The Guardian. This is enough to encourage Max and other streaming services to do the same.
It's possible that Max could add additional charges for extra accounts outside the household, especially if certain users don't want to lose their viewing history, profile recommendations, and save lists. It's either that or Max will allow users to transfer profiles to another account like Netflix.
