HBO Max is about to start cracking down on password sharing aggressively. The news comes via Warner Bros. Discovery's earnings call.
Why does the company want to do this? That's pretty simple. In April this year, Max announced a new extra member add-on that costs $7.99 per month. Now, it wants to ensure that people start paying up for it. This is similar to what Netflix, and Disney Plus did over the past couple of years, so did Hulu.
HBO Max has three subscription plans. The Basic With Ads Plan costs $9.99 per month (or $99.99 per year), and allows 2 devices to stream videos simultaneously at 1080p. The Standard Ad-Free plan costs $16.99 per month ($169.99 per year), and lets you watch videos without advertisements. It also supports 1080p, and 2 screens, but you can choose 30 titles to watch offline. The Premium Ad-Free plan costs $20.99 per month ($209.99 per year), and allows up to 4 devices to stream videos simultaneously, watch videos in 4K, Dolby Atmos, and allows up to 100 titles to be watched offline. It's not as bad as Peacock's prices, but then again, nothing is.
Engadget reports that HBO Max managed to attract 3.4 million new subscribers this quarter. JB Perrette, the head of streaming and gaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, said that the company had been testing to determine "who's a legitimate user, and who may not be". It's probably
HBO Max had been urging users who were sharing passwords to pay for the extra member fee. Perrette says that this message language has been fairly soft, cancel-able. This is about to change, instead of being a voluntary process, the new messaging campaign will be more aggressive, it will be more fixed and people will have to take action.
HBO Max will start its crackdown on password sharing beginning next month. The company expects that it will see the real benefit start in the 4th quarter, and kick in 2026.
Well, people wouldn't resort to password sharing if streaming services were affordable. But these companies keep finding new ways to make people pay more, by introducing ads, ad-free plans, price hikes.
Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post HBO Max to aggressively crackdown on password sharing appeared first on gHacks Technology News.
0 Commentaires