HBO Max is gearing up to follow Netflix’s lead and get tough on password sharers — and the days of “gentle reminders” are numbered.
Warner Bros. Discovery streaming boss JB Perette told investors this week that the service’s soft-touch approach is about to be replaced with something “much more aggressive” by the end of 2025. He’s been hinting at this for months — most notably back in May — but now the language has shifted from vague warnings to a clear deadline.
The company says it now has the tech to figure out exactly who’s a paying household member and who isn’t. That means it can pinpoint freeloaders without risking a crackdown on legitimate subscribers — or at least that’s the goal. Perette describes it as “putting the net in the right place,” which sounds a lot like Netflix’s carefully tuned detection system.
HBO Max has already laid the groundwork for paid sharing. Earlier this year, it rolled out “extra member” slots at $7.99/month each, identical to Netflix’s fee. But unlike Netflix, which moved from warnings to hard blocks in a matter of months, HBO Max has so far kept things civil — just a few pop-up notices reminding you that sharing is against the rules.
That grace period is coming to an end. HBO Max’s own terms of service give it wide authority to limit access or disable features for accounts that violate its rules. If the company decides to go full Netflix, we could see verification prompts, device blocks, or mandatory re-logins for suspicious accounts.
Whether the coming crackdown will be a mild nudge or a full lockout remains to be seen — but Perette’s message is unmistakable: the days of casually giving your cousin your HBO Max login are numbered, and you might want to start having that “maybe it’s time you got your own subscription” conversation now.