Max Password Sharing Is Not Long For This World, Warns Warner Bros. (Again)
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Summary
- Warner Bros.’ Max plans to crack down on password sharing, starting with ‘soft messaging’ and getting more assertive.
- Over 12–18 months, the crackdown will expand in the US, then globally, while leveraging Max’s new Extra Member Add-On option.
- Anti-password-sharing strategies, like Netflix’s in 2023, are proven to boost subscriber numbers and revenue when done right — so Warner Bros. is starting slowly.
Streaming services were famously hailed as entertainment lovers’ savior from restrictive cable contracts and ever-increasing fees. In some ways, they’ve succeeded. A single streaming subscription costs far less than a cable plan, but on the other hand, locks you into that provider’s content. To take better advantage of the low prices, users have shared passwords with friends and family since the industry started taking shape nearly two decades ago.
But, as with many consumer-friendly services, platform rot continues to creep into the best video-on-demand services. Netflix’s betrayal was particularly frustrating, given its previous encouragement to share passwords with people you love. Warner Bros.’ Max is getting in on the crackdown, too, and this time it’s for real — but, depending on where you’re located, you might not see it happen for over a year. But it’s coming. They promise (Source: Variety via PCMag).
It starts with messaging
From ‘very soft’ to ‘more assertive’
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JB Perrette, Warner Bros. CEO, used the company’s first-quarter earnings call to explain to investors and analysts how Max would gradually cut down on password sharing in an attempt to boost revenue. You may remember its first warning shot a few months ago; This canary in the coal mine is essentially another, louder warning shot, accompanied by a general timeframe from now until the end of 2026.
Perrette declined to provide participants with specific numbers, instead outlining the service’s relatively vague plans for implementation. “The messaging [to users] is part of the parallel path of the password-sharing initiatives that we have,” said Perrette, likely referring at least partly to the Extra Member Add-On introduced in the US a month ago.
He went on to explain how it’s starting with “very soft messaging,” which will get “more assertive over the course of the back half of the year and really into ’26.” If you think that sounds like a threat, he continued, “We can modify access or disable features, including for security reasons, to limit the impact of account sharing outside your household or where we have concluded in our discretion that there has been misuse of your Max Account.” In other words, Max will know if you violate its password sharing policy, and it will punish you.
Following the industry lead
If Netflix can do it successfully, anybody can
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. First, a platform is good to its users. Then, it abuses its users to create excess value for business partners. Finally, it abuses those business consumers to claw back all possible value for itself. That’s Cory Doctorow’s definition of platform rot, and Max — like many streaming services these days — is arguably at step number two.
That’s not to say this is unexpected or even entirely unfair. After all, it’s ethical to pay for services we value. But it is one more example of subscription-based platforms taking every opportunity to raise prices and disregard built-up goodwill in the name of boosting subscriber numbers.
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Plus, much to the dismay of frugal users, the crackdown strategy works. Netflix experienced significant rises in subscribers and revenue after reversing course on password sharing, and the ensuing copycat services only got better at softening the blow. Max’s technique involves doing just that, but preemptively: even the soft messaging will roll out slowly to various groups across the US in classic A/B testing style. The optional Extra Member upgrade won’t even launch globally until next year, so Warner Bros. has plenty of time to test the waters in the US market.
In other words, don’t take your friends’ streaming account passwords for granted. Because Max is coming for illicit credential sharing, and this time, it means it. Sometime in the next 18 months, that is.
