Max might be deleting profiles that they identify as sharing passwords soon. The Warner Bros. Discovery streamer joins Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and others in their efforts to shut down the popular practice. Subscribers have consistently lamented such moves and the companies push forward undaunted. Variety reports that the company announced their attention during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom conference. Subscribers will be put into the precarious position of losing their queues if they choose not to comply with this new rule change. Others have proposed even more draconian measures like banning IP-addresses. Whatever the case, another depressing development to look forward to in 2024.
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Warner Bros. Discovery president of global streaming and games, J.B. Perrette argued, “Obviously Netflix has implemented [that] extremely successfully. We’re going to be doing that starting later this year and into ’25, which is another growth opportunity for us.”
“We said, we are moving from a world of subs at all cost, which is kind of the narrative that existed in the old media landscape, to a one of profitable growth as our key North Star,” the executive added in his comments.
The Password Sharing Trend Started With Netflix
Of course, all of this started when Netflix signaled its intention to cut down on password sharing. A practice that they championed through much of the early streaming era. In effect, a lot of their early original productions were boosted by so many people being able to see them without a barrier to entry. Once the economic conditions shifted slightly, and subscriber numbers stopped going up indefinitely, they decided to pull the ladder up behind them. Now, without a physical DVD business or much physical media competition, they can dictate terms like a lot of the streaming world has chosen to.
“We believe we’ve successfully addressed account sharing, ensuring that when people enjoy Netflix they pay for the service too,” the letter that Netflix sent out to shareholders read. “Features like Transfer Profile and Extra Member were much requested, and many millions of our members are now taking advantage of them.”
They added, “At this stage, paid sharing is our normal course of business — creating a much bigger base from which we can grow and enabling us to more effectively penetrate the near term addressable market of ~500M connected TV households (excluding China and Russia), which should increase over time as broadband penetration rises.”
Max Shuttering Shows and Movies
For a couple of years now, Max has shutters some movies and TV shows. Fans have decried these moves as Warner Bros. Discovery strives to cut costs. For those paying attention, the meager economic gains do not justify flushing entire movies for tax purposes. CEO David Zaslav has remained defiant in the face of this criticism. He’s publicly said that the company hasn’t gotten rid of “any show that’s been helping us.” Still, the shaving has continued and probably will for a while.
“This is more than just a dollar tally of what we’ve saved on an expense line,” Zaslav told investors during an 2022 financial call as he explained this controversial strategy. “It is more than just a number. We are fundamentally rethinking and reimagining how this organization is structured. And we are empowering our business unit leadership to transform their organizations with an owners mindset and a view on quality and accountability.”
How do you feel about these changes? Let us know down in the comments!
