The days of sharing your Max account with family and friends outside of your household are soon coming to an end. Months after Warner Bros. Discovery first announced it would follow in the footsteps of Netflix and other streamers in implementing restrictions around account sharing, the company confirmed Thursday that the Max password-sharing crackdown is set to begin in the coming months.
Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels shared the update during Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q3 earnings call, revealing that “very soft messaging” about the change and further details will begin rolling out between now and the end of 2024, according to The Verge and The Streamable. After that, more progress on the initiative will be made throughout 2025 and into 2026.
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The decision to implement a password-sharing crackdown comes after a 2022 survey found that approximately 14% of all Max customers at the time were getting access to the streamer, then called HBO Max, through somebody else’s password, an issue that has plagued streamers across the board and impacted potential revenue and subscriber growth. The streamer was only second to Netflix in that regard, with that streamer going on to implement a controversial password-sharing crackdown in 2023 that resulted in soaring profits and more subscribers.
In March 2024, CEO and President of Streaming and Games J.B. Perrette announced that Max would also be moving into password-sharing restriction territory, stating, “password-sharing crackdown, which, obviously, Netflix has implemented extremely successfully. We’re going to be doing that starting later this year and into ’25, which is another growth opportunity for us.”
Wiedenfels described the crackdown as “a form of price rises,” as the company is “asking members who have not signed up, or multi-household members to pay a little bit more.”
Exact details of the Max password-sharing crackdown are uncertain at this time. However, it is believed that the streamer will forge a similar path to Netflix by allowing subscribers to pay an additional monthly fee for a paid sharing option. Currently, Max’s terms of use state that subscribers “have the option to create up to five (5) authorized user profiles on your Max account (each, an ‘Authorized User’),” where “Authorized Users” are described as “limited to members of your household.”
