Max ready its own password-sharing crackdown

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max will finally enforce its much-promised password-sharing crackdown, with plans to gradually begin enforcement over the next few months. When Warner Bros. Discovery reported its third-quarter earnings, CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said the initial step of enforcement would be done in very soft messaging, but then further steps could be expected in 2025 and 2026.

Password sharing as “a form of price increases,” and that the firm would ask users who share accounts with someone else outside their household, or those who haven’t yet subscribed, to pay a bit more. This is after months of speculation on when and how Max was going to address the widespread practice of password sharing, a practice that has been keeping various streaming platforms, including Netflix and Disney Plus, on their toes.

Earlier this year, JB Perrette, president of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said the company was going to start cracking down on password sharing “later in this year and into 2025.” Wiedenfels’ latest comments fit within that plan and the implementation would come in an equally similar fashion to what Disney+ did when that service had moved ahead months prior to inform customers of those planned changes. Then there’s Netflix, which introduced paid password sharing last year as part of a broader strategy to accelerate growth in revenue.

While price increases are just one of the top priorities in Max’s crackdown on password sharing, Wiedenfels did not close the door altogether on further price hikes. He said that Max’s “premium nature” affords the company a fair amount of room to charge a bit more if needed and reminded that the company has been particularly cautious regarding price hikes. Max last raised prices on its ad-free plans back in June 2024.

Max reported a strong quarter with subscriber growth, adding 7.2 million new subscribers and bringing the overall global subscriber count to 110.5 million. The greater company strategic plan also is no doubt on the mind of CEO David Zaslav, who has noted his desire for Warner Bros. Discovery to bring more “consistency” to its film and gaming businesses. Zaslav said that the company had been disappointed in Joker: Folie à Deux, and it would work harder on future offerings in that area and in others.

Max is set to have great implications on users as it tries to conquer password sharing, continue to grow its subscribers, and possibly see if they can readjust the pricing play.

source