Starting in September, HBO Max will take a more direct hand in locking down the practice of account sharing.
That’s according to JB Perrette, CEO of streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, who spoke on the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday.
The streamer has spent the last month sending “soft” messages to users asking them to sign up for additional account access, but Perrette noted that customers could skip the notice. Starting in September, those messages will be fixed, requiring customers to register for access.
HBO Max, owned by WBD, is just the latest streaming service to clamp down on account sharing, where people in different households use the same login to access the service. Netflix, in particular, has seen success and subscriber growth as it restricted account sharing over the last two years. Walt Disney Co. has also set the groundwork for a similar lockdown with Disney+.
Perrette noted that “we’re in the first inning” when it comes to their work around this issue, and the last few months have been spent making sure “we were putting the net in the right place” and identifying the correct users vs. people going on vacation or work trips.
HBO Max expects to see more benefits from the crackdown in the fourth quarter and into 2026, Perrette added, noting that the notice will contain “more aggressive” language getting them to sign up.
Perrette had previously warned that the move wouldn’t yield the kind of aggressive growth that Netflix saw, considering HBO Max hasn’t been around as long as the rival streaming giant. But he did say that it could lean to meaningful growth in terms of subscribers and revenue.
When asked about how he planned to keep customer turnover down, Perrette pointed to bundling as one way to retaining customers, as well as working to improve the slate so there’s a more consistent flow of new content without gaps. He also said the company is focused on improving the service itself.
“We went from not good to good, but we’re still a ways to go in terms of feature set,” he said. “We’re testing new features every month to get the product from good to great.”
