A new streaming platform is joining the password sharing crackdown, with Warner Bros. Discovery's Max soon to be getting more strict with subscriptions and asking users to have their accounts on the platform. This follows the footsteps of the proprietor, Netflix, which was later succeeded by Disney+, asking subscribers who are not in the same household to stop borrowing or splitting accounts.
It remains unknown what steps WB Discovery and HBO would take for Max's password sharing crackdown, especially with the additional profile charges and other possible outcomes for this.
Max Password Sharing Crack Down is Coming for Users
Bloomberg reported that HBO and WBD are now planning toward a future where Max will prevent users from sharing their passwords with other people, looking to profit more from its business. Later this year, more password sharing cracks down will be felt via Max's platform, but it remains unknown where the company would test this or enforce this in its initial stage.
According to the report, Max's expansion to France, Latin America, and Australia in the next 18 months would be joined by its ramping approach against password sharing.
However, it remains unknown if Max's password sharing would have specific policies like Netflix has, one that requires a user to connect to a single home network to verify the ownership and affiliation to the subscriber.
When to Expect Max's Password Sharing Policy?
The report further claimed that WB Discovery plans for this policy to take full effect by 2025, but there were no exact dates mentioned by the company's release or from the report. It was also shared that later this year, there is an expected crackdown on password sharing from Max, but it is unknown if this would be part of a testing phase for the new policy, also with unspecified regions.
Netflix, Disney+ Password Sharing
Last year, the dreaded day for friends, relatives, colleagues, and more arrived from Netflix, as the company launched its new password-sharing policy after initially testing it to select countries. This targeted accounts whose logins are not of the same network, meaning those who use it in other households, requiring users to use a single network at least every 31 days for continued use.
In Netflix's case, it still allowed password sharing, but it requires a specific user to pay for an extra profile which grants them access to the subscription tier and benefits of the original one. Before this, it only offered a way to transfer profiles and apply for new subscriptions with another account easily.
It was shortly followed by another top streaming platform, Disney+, alongside its co-subsidiary, Hulu, where both platforms initially enforced this in Canada before the US.
Both Netflix and Disney+'s services now observe a strict policy against password sharing, inspiring other platforms to also do the same to gain more revenue from their subscriptions. In the latest developments in the streaming industry, WBD and HBO decided to do the same for Max, with its password sharing crackdown to begin by 2025 and prevent access to those without subscriptions.
