03/05/2024

A Max Password-sharing Crackdown Is Coming

Streaming services keep restricting password-sharing

Be warned, all ye who watch House of the Dragon thanks to your parents’ Max account: A password-sharing crackdown is coming.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Max’s parent company, plans to launch the restrictions in late 2024, WBD’s head of global streaming and games, JB Parrette, said at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference on Monday. Details on the crackdown are scant, but the push toward paid sharing is expected to roll out more widely next year.

Max, formerly HBO Max, is just the latest streamer to look to password-sharing limitations to keep streaming viable. Netflix started cracking down on users sharing their passwords outside the household last year. Disney recently informed Disney+ and Hulu subscribers of plans to convert suspected account sharers to paid subscribers. Disney emailed customers in February letting them know that their terms of service would be changing and that the sharing of login information with anyone outside their household would be forbidden starting March 14. Netflix, similarly, rolled out its restrictions last year by emailing users suspected of sharing their login details and telling them users outside the household would be shut out.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.