Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to crackdown on Max password sharing before the end of 2024, and a broader rollout in 2025.
J.B. Perrette, head of Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and gaming divisions, shared the company’s plans to crack down on password sharing. “We think, relative to the scale of our business, it’s a meaningful opportunity,” said the executive.
He went on to add, “Obviously, Netflix has implemented [a password-sharing crackdown] extremely successfully. We’re going to be doing that starting later this year and into 2025. Another growth opportunity for us.”
The announcement is not that surprising as Netflix did see a surge in subscriptions following its crackdown on password sharing. That service said it had upwards of 100 million accounts sharing passwords before the crackdown, a number that surpasses Max’s total subscriber base.
Each company seems to be taking a different approach to how it is cracking down on sharing, how Max plans to implement it remains to be seen. Netflix has taken a method of locking your account to the IP address of your home, with options to mark yourself as traveling or temporarily changing your home network. There are ways around it, but none of them are something you would want to do continually.
As streaming becomes the primary method of watching TV, this is sure to be a growing concern for all subscription-based services. Just because it hasn’t come to every service as of yet doesn’t mean it’s not on the way.
