HBO Max Password Sharing Crackdown Will Get 'Aggressive' Next Month (deadline.com) 25
Warner Bros. Discovery is preparing to crack down on HBO Max password sharing by the end of 2025, with "aggressive" enforcement and messaging starting next month. Deadline reports: JB Perrette, head of streaming and gaming at Warner Bros. Discovery said on the company's second-quarter earnings call that messaging to consumers is about to get more "aggressive." The media company looking to close the loopholes by the end of 2025, with the impact starting to appear in its financials by 2026. Several months of testing has enabled WBD to determine "who's a legitimate user who may not be a legitimate user," Perrette said. Once that is determined, he continued, the next step is to "turn on the more aggressive language around what needs to happen" in order to and make sure that "we are putting the net in the right place, so to speak."
Asked about what "inning" the process is in, to use the baseball cliche, Perrette said only the first. By the fourth quarter, he said, the process will be happening "in a much more aggressive fashion." "The message language right now has been a fairly soft, cancel-able message," he said. It will "start to get more fixed and such that people have to take action as opposed to right now, sort of having to be a voluntary process." Once those directives are established, he said, "the real benefit will start probably in the fourth quarter and then kick in in 2026."
Asked about what "inning" the process is in, to use the baseball cliche, Perrette said only the first. By the fourth quarter, he said, the process will be happening "in a much more aggressive fashion." "The message language right now has been a fairly soft, cancel-able message," he said. It will "start to get more fixed and such that people have to take action as opposed to right now, sort of having to be a voluntary process." Once those directives are established, he said, "the real benefit will start probably in the fourth quarter and then kick in in 2026."
It'll be interesting to see how aggressive (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand I know lots of folks around here have been dinged and I suspect that's because they're algorithm determined they could get two subscriptions out of you where as they couldn't get to subscriptions out of me I would just cancel (and they were right).
It's another example of selective enforcement of a rule or law. Relatively harmless All things considered. Certainly better than a lot of the other things we selectively enforce in America.
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On the other hand I know lots of folks around here have been dinged and I suspect that's because they're algorithm determined they could get two subscriptions out of you where as they couldn't get to subscriptions out of me I would just cancel (and they were right).
I get dinged when I haven't signed out my mom's account at my house on the other side of the country, even though I'm an add-on household for that account.
Also, my mom got dinged when she stayed out here for a while, even though obviously she wasn't using her account from back home. She ended up in a state where she couldn't watch Netflix at all until I got home and helped her fix it.
Their algorithm sucks, and is arguably elder abuse for profit's sake. F**k Netflix.
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F**k Netflix.
Then why do you subscribe?
Re: It'll be interesting to see how aggressive (Score:1)
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F**k Netflix.
Then why do you subscribe?
Arguably I don't anymore. My mom watches it all the time, so she has a real subscription. I just do an add-on plan. When they took away my basic plan by force, I dropped my personal subscription. And I'm positively giddy every time I think about the fact that that their decision to be excessively greedy pushed me into a plan that pays them even less, gives me better picture quality, and is still ad-free.
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"Arguably" you do. You still give them your money and then complain about it. It's a bit disingenuous, don't you think?
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"Arguably" you do. You still give them your money and then complain about it. It's a bit disingenuous, don't you think?
No, not really. I give money to a lot of companies whose business practices I don't particularly like. That's the problem with such a small number of companies having such solid control over a market. If you don't do that, you won't have a cell phone, Internet service, electricity, etc.
Is this going to get customers? (Score:2, Insightful)
Between this and price hikes, is this going to actually gain customers in the long term, versus people choosing the high seas? What got rid of piracy with video was the fact that the price was low enough initially that it was easier to pay the few bucks a month and get the shows they watch. Keep hiking rates, and suddenly you will find a lot of people with offshore seedboxes or plain VPNs.
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Now that current smart TVs analyze what you watch and sending this back to the TV's maker, watching pirated content on a smart TV
sounds like a bad idea in the long run. Your TV knows when you are watching a pirated copy and in the near future it may rat you out.
Re: Is this going to get customers? (Score:3)
My smart TV hasn't guessed my wifi password yet, so I think I'm still safe.
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Or is it playing dumb?
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I am a cruel master, I have never even let it download a software update.
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I run pirated content via a raspberry pi server connecting via HDMI.
Just how, exactly, will the tv rat me out?
Re: Is this going to get customers? (Score:2)
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Between this and price hikes, is this going to actually gain customers in the long term, versus people choosing the high seas? What got rid of piracy with video was the fact that the price was low enough initially that it was easier to pay the few bucks a month and get the shows they watch. Keep hiking rates, and suddenly you will find a lot of people with offshore seedboxes or plain VPNs.
For some people it may lead to the high seas, but for me and a few of my friends it took us down the path of realizing we just don't need to watch so much streaming. I'll catch a show or two on the free channels (Tubi, Youtube, etc.) and never pay a dime, then spend the rest of my time playing music with friends, going for walks, playing with my pets, or goofing around with the neighbors. I wish more folks would take the opportunity to rid themselves of these parasitic businesses and just let those business
HBO canceling will get aggressive (Score:5, Insightful)
If they don't want account sharing, they should not allow multiple streams at the same time. If they allow them, it doesn't matter how far apart the people are.
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Im not a Max user, but I remember Netflix having account tiers for different amounts of streams at once or whatever.
After that, it seems simple, just use a FIFO. If youre allowed N streams, have N streams going, and another person logs in with the same credentials and starts a stream? You just disconnect whoevers been on the longest. Maybe pop up a little message saying "your account allows N streams; a new stream was started from [IP, Geolocation, sub-account profile, whatever] so youve been logged out.
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It doesn't make much sense that a person watches 4 streams at the same time. So the service level with 4 streams is obviously thought for four persons watching. It's none of HBO's business who the persons are. Password sharing is only a technicality required to let others watch the streams you're not watching yourself. The real issue is, that they tell they provide more streams, but then want you not to use them. Just restrict it to one stream and people won't share their password because they don't want ot
I donâ(TM)t share my password (Score:1)
Asked for a baseball analogy (Score:3)
Asked about what "inning" the process is in, to use the baseball cliche, Perrette said only the first. By the fourth quarter, he said, the process will be happening "in a much more aggressive fashion."
The reporter asked for a sports analogy, but Perrette wouldn't play ball.
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Also, why would the reporter ask it that way? Is he trying to signal, "I'm just a regular guy, not some nerd that would ask about trimesters or quarters or phases"? If so, he kind of struck out on slashdot.
"I'm cancelling my subscription!" (Score:1)