HBO Max will crack down on password sharing starting next month
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Fortune

HBO Max will crack down on password sharing starting next month

August 8, 2025
04:06 PM
2 min read
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"we are putting the net in the right place, so to speak."

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2 min read

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business news

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August 8, 2025

04:06 PM

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Fortune

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Arts & Entertainment·Warner Bros

DiscoveryHBO Max will crack down on password sharing starting next monthBy Chris MorrisBy Chris MorrisContributing WriterChris MorrisContributing WriterChris Morris is a contributing writer at Fortune, covering everything from general news to the game and theme park industries.SEE FULL BIO HBO is ing in the footsteps of Netflix and Disney in cracking down on password sharing.Joaquin Ossorio-Castillo—Getty ImagesHBO Max intends to aggressively crack down on password sharing

The company, which has given users the option to pay an additional $8 per month to passwords outside the will begin to make that fee mandatory starting in September

The watch party is over for people who have been freeloading on their subscription to HBO Max

Discovery says it will begin to more aggressively going after people passwords on a recent earnings call

People who insist on adding viewers outside of their household will be asked to pay an additional $7.99 per month

That fee has actually been in place for a while, but the restrictions haven’t been strongly enforced

That ends at the end of August, said WBD ing Chief JB Perrette

The company, Perrette said, has been testing for months to determine “who’s a legitimate user who may not be a legitimate user.” With that determined, he said, “we are putting the net in the right place, so to speak.” Warner Bros

Discovery has been threatening a crackdown on password sharing for over a year

The enforcement will Netflix’s decision to put an end to password sharing in 2023 and a similar action in February 2024 by Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+

Disney CEO Bob Iger said the issue was “a real priority” in an earnings call with analysts in 2023

Password sharing has become a blem for all ing services and could cost the industry up to $25 billion a year, according to a Citibank report

Netflix said in 2022 that more than 100 million households are using accounts paid for by other people

Crackdowns drive subscriptions, though

Netflix saw a big surge in sign-ups after it hibited the sharing of user passwords. r growth in the quarter ing the action saw 5.9 million new users, nearly three times what analysts had estimated.Introducing the 2025 Fortune Global 500, the definitive ranking of the biggest companies in the world

Explore this year's list.