Max will start cracking down on password sharing, too

Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu have all joined the party when it comes to password-sharing crackdowns, so who’s next? Did you say Max? 

That’s right, Max appears to be next in the password-sharing crackdown derby, with the CEO of Max parent Warner Bros. Discovery announcing that the streamer will kick off its anti password-sharing plan this year. 

“We think, relative to the scale of our business, it’s a meaningful opportunity,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO JB Perrette said Monday at a Morgan Stanley investor conference in San Francisco, according to The Wrap. 

Following an initial launch this year, Max’s password-sharing crackdown will ramp up in 2025, The Wrap reports. 

Perrette didn’t reveal details about how Max’s password-sharing crackdown will work, but the streamer will likely follow Netflix’s thus-far successful playbook: namely, rolling out a means for paying Max subscribers to purchase additional “households” on their accounts. 

Prior to that rollout, Max will likely send emails to its subscribers outlining changes in their service agreements that specifically forbid password sharing, just as Disney+ and Hulu did earlier this year. 

Behind it all, of course, is the urgent need for Max—just like all the other big streamers—to cut costs and boost profits. 

Max parent Warner Bros. Discovery is making headway toward profitability, with the conglomerate reporting a full-year profit of $103 million for 2023, versus a $1.59 billion loss the year prior, The Wrap says. 

Still, Warner’s “direct-to-consumer” properties, including Max, Discovery+, and HBO cable channels, are still operating at a loss, although greener pastures are expected in the “second half” of 2024, notes The Wrap. 

Disney, meanwhile, is poised to roll out paid account sharing this summer for Disney+, with Hulu—Disney’s other streamer—likely to follow. 

Netflix is well ahead of the pack in terms of its password-sharing crackdown, having rolled out paid account sharing to the U.S. and other worldwide territories last year.