HBO Max is officially joining the streaming industry’s password-sharing crackdown.
Warner Bros. Discovery announced it will begin enforcing stricter limits on account sharing by the end of 2025, following several months of internal testing. The company plans to ramp up its messaging to users, shifting from soft reminders to firmer language that will require subscribers to take action.
“We’re going to get more aggressive with our communication,” said JB Perrette, Warner Bros. Discovery’s head of streaming and gaming, during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call. “It’s no longer going to be a voluntary process.”
The move comes as HBO Max, which currently boasts around 125.7 million subscribers globally, aims to close loopholes in its user policy. For now, the platform allows subscribers to share their accounts with people living in the same household — a standard industry definition. But soon, users attempting to access accounts from outside the primary residence could be prompted to either sign up for their own plan or pay an additional fee.
According to the company, subscribers will have the option to add an “extra member” — someone outside their home — for $7.99 per month. This feature is only available through HBO Max’s own billing system, not via third-party platforms like app stores or cable bundles.
HBO Max uses a combination of account information, device IDs, IP addresses, and user activity to determine whether a viewer is part of the household. If not, a prompt may appear urging them to transfer their profile to a separate account.
So far, the warnings have been relatively lenient. But that’s expected to change. “The message language right now has been a fairly soft, cancel-able message,” Perrette said. “It will start to get more fixed.”
The streaming industry is increasingly tightening its grip on shared logins. Netflix was the first major player to take action in 2023, followed by Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ in 2024. Now, HBO Max is following suit — and expects the full impact of the policy change to be visible by 2026.
For viewers enjoying HBO Max from someone else’s couch — or IP address — it may be time to prepare for a prompt, a price tag, or both.
(Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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