HBO Max may be developing a novel approach to the password sharing issue.
Brad Wilson, WarnerMedia’s executive vice president of growth and revenue, spoke with IGN about the first year of HBO Max, the surprising success of Mortal Kombat and the service's fight in the streaming wars. During the conversation, Wilson was asked about how HBO Max will handle password sharing, which has become a major issue for many streamers. While not overly concerned, Wilson did suggest a more modern approach to the behavior.
"One of the dynamics we've seen so far is we have an account base sub, but there's a lot of viewership within the family," Wilson said. "We've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of kids' profiles that have been created. Within that password sharing, we have not seemed to have reached those levels at the moment. We want to do whatever we can, should we see those behaviors, to understand how we can create more value for that network. In our case, it's a family today, but perhaps there are other extensions associated with that. We'll take a look at the data and figure out what the best course of action is going forward."
Though it seems HBO Max isn't currently concerned with people sharing passwords outside of their households, the company's potential solution is certainly an intriguing one. Rather than focus on a family and household as synonymous, Wilson seems to be suggesting that HBO Max will redefine what a "family" account will look like moving forward, taking into account people who share passwords with friends. After all, sharing a password with three friends would involve fewer people on a single account than a family of five all in the same household, but the latter is considered the norm by streaming companies while the former is viewed as a major problem.
Netflix lost $1.5 million to password sharing in 2019. That year, they joined with Disney, Sony, Warner Bros. and others to crack down on password sharing with the formation of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). It appears that since that time, WarnerMedia may have taken a different approach. Netflix, however, has certainly remained committed to the fight against password sharing.
In March, Netflix developed a new password-sharing defense that would attempt to verify if someone on an account actually knew the person paying for the service. A month later, however, Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings seemed to walk back the company's zeal against the issue, possibly due to consumer backlash.
Source: IGN