Last month, Warner Bros. Discovery announced its plan to begin charging people $7.99 per month if they want to use a Max account that doesn’t belong to them. Netflix pioneered this money-squeezing initiative (as it is wont to do) a couple of years ago, so it was only a matter of time before the other streamers thought, “Hey, wait a minute, we can just do that too.” And while they certainly can do that too, it’s going to take Warner Bros. Discovery a little bit before it really figures out how to do it.
This is per WBD boss David Zaslav’s comments during a first quarter earnings call this morning, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The trade reports Zaslav saying it would take “12 to 18 months” before the “password-sharing crackdown initiative” would run “full steam.” The crackdown “will create another boost of both subscriber and [average revenue per user] growth through the extra member add-on,” Zaslav said, adding that, “Content is obviously the fuel of this entire thing.” Say what you want about the guy, but obviously content is the fuel of this entire thing.
While it’s easy to dunk on Warner Bros. Discovery’s horrifically unpopular decision-making, this is more or less the same timeline Netflix worked out when it launched its own password-sharing crackdown a few years ago. Netflix’s initiative was first tested in Latin American countries like Chile and Peru in 2022 before it came stateside in 2023. Everyone and their literal mother complained about it, but Netflix claimed those complaints did not really deter people from using Netflix. Beyond that, HBO specifically is known for top-shelf, high-quality TV, so Max may in fact have a better shot at raising prices than the other streamers that will inevitably try to implement the same thing in the coming years.
