Disney and Netflix are now being sued by HBO for sharing passwords

HBO is the latest streaming service to say it will crack down on password sharing, which is becoming more and more common. Warner Bros. Discovery wants to follow the lead of Netflix and Disney by adding new features to its streaming service Max that will make it harder to share passwords. The changes will happen gradually over the course of 2025.
The Warner Bros.

Discovery is taking a big risk by making it harder to share passwords. They want to make their streaming business profitable. A story from Bloomberg says that the project will start later this year and will be fully operational by 2025. Max wants to grow his business around the world, and this approach fits with his plans to do so. Within 18 months, he wants to enter new markets in France, Latin America, and Australia.
In a statement, JB Perette, Max’s streaming boss, said, “We are confident in our growth opportunities ahead and remain strongly convinced that Max will become one of the best streaming services in the world.”
Max is copying what Netflix and Disney+ have done by making it harder to share passwords. Last year, Netflix made it so that devices logged into an account had to connect to the account holder’s home Wi-Fi network at least once every 31 days. This was done to stop users from sharing passwords with people outside of their homes.
Earlier this year, Disney+ and Hulu did the same thing to stop people from sharing passwords, which has been a problem for streaming services for a long time because it cuts into their possible income lines.
HBO’s move comes as worries about the rising rate of customer turnover in the streaming business grow. Antenna, a research firm, says that the number of people canceling video-streaming services has almost tripled in the last four years. These people are called “serial churners” if they have cancelled a service at least three times in the last two years.
“Services are working harder for smaller gains,” the study bluntly says, showing how hard it is for streaming services to keep users and make money in the long term.
Max’s move to crack down on password sharing is a sign of the streaming service’s larger identity problem, and it has financial consequences as well. Bloomberg says that Max doesn’t stand for anything specific. It’s just the name of a platform that combines HBO Max and Discovery+ to compete with Netflix as a general entertainment service.
“Max is in a big psychological bind. Max doesn’t believe in anything. What is that if it’s not HBO? The story says, “The company doesn’t have much time left to answer that question.”
Max wants to make more money and strengthen its place in the streaming market, which is getting more crowded and competitive, by taking action against people who share passwords.