First Netflix, next Disney+ and soon Max. The days of password sharing for streaming services are screeching to a halt.
Warner Bros. Discovery has plans to clamp down on users sharing their accounts with friends and family members, starting later this year, but coming into full effect in 2025.
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According to TheWrap, the a key executive at WBD believe cracking down on the use of accounts in multiple homes represents a “meaningful opportunity”.
JB Perrette, the CEO and president of global streaming, commended Netflix on its successful crackdown and wants in on that action given the “scale of our business.”
He added “obviously, Netflix has implemented [its password crackdown] extremely successfully. We’re gonna be doing that starting later this year and into 25.”
You can certainly see why the company behind HBO might be ready to turn freeloaders into subscribers. It reportedly lost $55 million through Max in the last quarter of 2024 alone. At least that was down from over $217 million from the corresponding period the year before.
Netflix did much better than expected out of its decision to abandon one of its central tenets; its comfort with password sharing.
“The cancel reaction continues to be low, exceeding our expectations, and borrower households converting into full paying memberships are demonstrating healthy retention,” Netflix said last October. Disney (which includes the likes of Hulu and ESPN under its banner) has announced plans to roll out the crackdown this summer.
Max has the new season of House of the Dragon to look forward to this summer, but it’ll be a while before another flagship show The Last of Us returns to the platform. That’s not expected until next year. Chances are, if you’re sharing your account at that point, WBD will put a stop to it.
