MAX will begin warning users about password sharing bans this month

Last March, MAX announced that it would be joining the ban on sharing user account passwords, following in the footsteps of strategies previously imposed by other streamers such as Netflix and Disney+.

The information in this instance was announced by JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and global games at Warner Bros. Discovery, who also revealed that the measure would be launching this year with a broader rollout in 2025.

It is the executive himself who this week during a technology and media conference organized by Wells Fargo, said that Max will begin to crack down on password sharing this month, with “some very early and soft messages.”

Perrette's statements collected by Variety explain:

“It's an art and a science of trying to figure out who is actually sharing and who may be at their vacation home or on a business trip, and so it's an art and a science.

“We will offer a way to add a member, starting in the first quarter. Then we'll start gradually as we get the data and start to determine, with some explicit and implicit signals, how good we are at detection. And then, As we move into 2025, we will see filters become increasingly stricter.”

These are Max's current plans and monthly payment in Mexico:

• Basic plan with ads: ($149.00 mxn per month, $1,188.00 annually)
• Standard plan ($199.00 per month, $1,788.00 annually)
• Platinum plan ($249.00 per month, $2,388.00 annually)

In the United States, this is the monthly cost of current plans:

• $9.99 usd plan with ads
• $16.99 usd plan without ads
• $20.99 usd “definitive” plan

Perrette says the cost of Max will increase in the future. Although he did not say how far in the future the monthly payment increase will be, or by how much:

“Obviously, we continue to drive the price. Naturally, with Max and with HBO as a content category and brand, we want to be at the higher end of the prices. And so we also want to continue to drive the price as we go.”

Max already applied an increase in its cost this year, after the merger with the Discovery brand.

Two years ago, Netflix became the first streamer to prohibit its users from sharing passwords, forcing each user who does not live under the same roof to create their own account and thus, generating a new source of income for the platform. The strategy worked in their favor, and so Disney+ followed in their footsteps, and later, MAX.

Between multiple increases in subscription/monthly/annual costs of the platforms, advertisements within movies and series, more restrictions for users, and no extraordinary improvements in their catalogs and interfaces, we cannot help but wonder, Will users be consumed by anger and fatigue or will they play along with the streamers? At the rate we're going, this already looks more like pay cable TV than what was once presented as a great option over such cable services.