
HBO Max will crack down on password sharing starting next month
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"we are putting the net in the right place, so to speak."
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business news
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August 8, 2025
04:06 PM
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
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