Warner Bros Discovery has launched a new feature on its streaming service Max that allows customers to give access to another individual who lives beyond their immediate household.
The feature, called “Extra Member Add-On,” costs $8 per month on top of the usual monthly cost of Max, which ranges from $10 per month with ads to $21 per month for an ultra-premium tier with 4K streaming and other features.
The launch of Extra Member Add-On comes ahead of a broader crackdown on password-sharing between paying customers and freeloaders who live outside a subscriber’s immediate household. Similar efforts have been made by other services like Netflix and Disney Plus over the past few years. Last year, WBD executives warned of a crackdown on freeloaders using their service without payment that is set to begin in the summer.
WBD will take a measured approach to its password-sharing crackdown by educating customers about their agreed-upon terms of use, which limits the use of Max to members who live at the same address, as well as the ability to add additional members to their plan for a separate fee.
Former freeloaders who are given the opportunity to continue using a customer’s account through the Extra Member Add-On perk will be allowed to transfer their profile to a new account. The same goes for legitimate Max streamers who move from a paying subscriber’s household at some point in the future.
“Extra Member Add-On and Profile Transfer are two key Max advancements, designed to help viewers with a new way to enjoy our best-in-class content at an exceptional value, and offer subscribers greater flexibility in managing their accounts,” J. B. Perrette, the CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games at WBD, said in a statement. “These updates provide a simple way for subscribers to add-on a new member to their account, or for existing subscribers who have users outside of their household to smoothly, and in an uninterrupted fashion, transition their profile so that the extra member can continue to access Max.”
