For many of us, password-sharing has helped fill the void left by the pandemic, allowing us to use each other’s accounts to save money while catching up on our favorite movies and TV shows. Now, more and more streaming services are cracking down on the practice, and Max (formerly HBO Max) is the latest name to join the party.
Max Will Start Charging More for Shared Accounts
According to a recent earnings call, streaming giant Max is about to follow through on its previous threats to take action against password-sharing. It looks like Max won’t ban the practice entirely, but it will start charging more for shared subscriptions.
If you subscribe to or are sharing a Max account, you’re going to get a message from the company soon asking you to upgrade to a higher-priced subscription that will support members living in multiple households.
How will the new Max compare to other streaming services
From what we know so far, it seems like Max will take a page from Netflix’s approach to controlling password sharing and offer a way to share your account with people outside of your household — for an additional fee. However, it’s not yet clear how Max’s pricing will break down.
One possible outcome is that you’ll be able to add additional members to your account at a separate price per person, as Netflix does. Alternatively, Max could go with a flat add-on for “additional member” sharing privileges, similar to what Disney+ does to manage password sharing.
Similarly, Hulu has banned password piggybacking, but at the time of writing, Hulu doesn’t have higher-paying subscription options to support sharing like Netflix and Disney+ do. For this streaming service, more than one household means more than one account — period. In fact, according to Hulu’s subscriber agreement, if the company catches you sharing your account outside of your household, it can “terminate access” to your account.
For now, don’t worry too much about Max: You can still withdraw money from your friend’s account to watch Game of Thrones for the fifth time. It’ll just cost you a little more. However, regardless of sharing policies, we may see a general price increase on Max soon. And while there are plenty of reasons to like Max, if it gets even more of a gimmick I may have to go back to the ramen noodle diet.