There are fewer and fewer places for streaming freeloaders to escape to. Max followed in the footsteps of both Netflix and Disney+ and introduced an Extra Member Add-On feature. It’s the fancy, PR-friendly way of saying Max is finally cracking down on password sharing and wants you to pay extra if you’re mooching off someone else’s account.
The Max feature is being launched today, April 22, for an additional $7.99/month and includes the ability to transfer your profile as well so that you have your watch history, recommendations, and settings all intact. You can only add one extra member per account, it’s for one profile and one device at a time, and it’s only available if you subscribe to Max directly, not through a bundle. The price is also $7.99/month regardless of what tier you subscribe to, either Max with ads at $9.99/month, Standard at $16.99/month, or Premium at $20.99/month.
It’s a sign that a password sharing crackdown for anyone outside a household is on its way, and Warner Bros. Discovery execs recently indicated that a notification about restrictions should be sent to subscribers soon. Make sure you finish catching up on “The Pitt” and “The White Lotus” now.
The password sharing crackdown got serious when Netflix started doing it two years ago and introduced its own Extra Member Add-On feature. The price to add-on is $6.99/month, a dollar a month cheaper than Max, and it’s also a dollar cheaper than what Netflix charges to simply get your own account with ads. It’s been a good way of getting more of Netflix’s subscribers to convert to the ad-supported plan if they don’t want to deal with being an add-on, and it contributed greatly to what’s now known as the “Netflix Correction” following a particularly bleak quarter of subscriber losses.
Sure enough, Disney+ followed suit last year. It too is limited to just one additional member, and the Basic add-on for ad-supported users is $6.99/month, but Premium users have to pay an additional $9.99/month to add someone.
“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,” said JB Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros Discovery. “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 extra member can continue to access Max.”
