As most streamers continue to struggle to find profitability, a “crackdown” on unauthorized sharing of user passwords is becoming a common practice in their play book. Both Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney have confirmed that they will begin cracking down on password sharing later this year, each outlining details on how it will get each independent user to pay for streaming access.
Max users will be able to share passwords at a cheaper monthly rate than the ad-supported tier of Max of $9.99, though the specific price has not been determined according to those within Warner Bros. Discovery.
At Warner Bros. Discovery, the crackdown on password sharing to access Max will begin in the Fall, timed with new seasons of its streaming series “House of the Dragon,” “The Penguin” and “Dune: Prophecy.” Each user will be forced to have his account to access the service. Similar plans have been outlined for Disney+, also timed to begin with the fall season.
It seems that other streamers are following in Netflix’s footsteps to achieve success with the combination of providing a lower-cost, ad-supported tier of service followed by a campaign to shut down unauthorized password sharing.
However, it remains unclear whether WBD, Disney, and other streamers will achieve similar results as Netflix. Max’s number of total monthly viewers is significantly lower than Netflix’s, which limits the pool of untapped users who are not currently paying for the service. But with the company’s share price having fallen by almost 70% over the last two years, WBD has a strong incentive to find any way to increase revenue from its streaming platform to inch closer to profitability.