Who is ready for more password-sharing crackdowns? I know they are my favorite thing. In a streaming landscape filled with price increases, ads, and more, the password-sharing crackdowns still feel like the most egregious overtures made by streamers. Will you not just let us live? But no. Following in the footsteps of Netflix’s (sadly successful) password-sharing crackdown, we now have Max ramping up its own war on password sharing. We’ve been hearing about Max’s password-sharing crackdown for a little while, but it sounds like things are about to get serious. Max recently followed in Netflix’s footsteps and has added the ability to add an “extra member” to one’s account. Read: continue to share passwords, but pay for it. Here’s what we know.
As of April 22, Max has added an “Extra Member” Add-On feature for subscribers in the US. These “Extra Members” cost $7.99/month. Subscribers can use them to let someone not in their household create a separate account under the same subscription. Here, Max defines “household” as “the account owner (the person who created the account) and the people they live with.” We’d just like to remind everyone that ‘streaming household’ is a made-up term created by Max, Netflix, Disney+, and other streamers only for password-sharing crackdown purposes, but we digress.
Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that it will soon notify its subscribers that sharing passwords with users outside their household is no longer permitted. And, as part of Max’s password-sharing crackdown, use will be futurely restricted to the household only unless an Extra Member account is in place.
Max additionally shares, “Your Max account is for you and the people you live with. With the Extra Member Add-On, WarnerMedia-billed subscribers can share their Max plan with a friend or family member who doesn’t live with them.” And notes that with the Extra Member Add-On, the extra member can:
- Stream from anywhere that Max is available (they don’t need to live with the account owner).
- Stream on any supported device (1 device at a time).
- Have their own account, password, and 1 profile.
- Enjoy the same plan features as the account owner (e.g. if the owner has the Premium plan, the extra member can enjoy 4K Ultra HD video quality on select titles).
Currently, you can only have one add-on member per Max account. Those who create Extra Member profiles will be able to transfer their single adult profile, and thus retain watch history, recommendations, and other settings from their previous account. Basically, the advantage to conforming to this password-sharing crackdown feature is that you won’t have to start your Max account from scratch.
JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at Warner Bros Discovery commented on this password-sharing crackdown evolution, noting that “Extra Member Add-On and Profile Transfer are two key Max advancements, designed to help viewers with a new way to enjoy our best-in-class content at an exceptional value, and offer subscribers greater flexibility in managing their accounts. These updates provide a simple way for subscribers to add-on a new member to their account, or for existing subscribers who have users outside of their household to smoothly, and in an uninterrupted fashion, transition their profile so that extra member can continue to access Max.”
Streamers always frame password-sharing crackdown measures with such generosity. We’ll have to wait and see how intense Max‘s password-sharing crackdown is and how fast it ramps up.
Content shared from nerdist.com.