STREAMING SHOCK: Share Your Max Account? Pay Up – New $7.99 ‘Extra Member’ Fee

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Starting on April 22nd, Max has introduced the “Additional User” Upgrade option for US subscribers, which costs $7.99 per month. This feature allows subscribers to share their account with someone outside of their immediate household by creating a separate account under the same subscription. According to Max, the term “household” refers to the person who initially created the account and those residing with them at the same address. It’s essential to note that the term “streaming household” is a branded term used by services like Max, Netflix, Disney+, among others, for password-sharing restrictions purposes, but we’ll leave further discussions about that for another time.

Warner Bros. Discovery has shared that they will soon alert their subscribers about a change in policy: it’s no longer acceptable to share accounts with individuals outside one’s household. Additionally, in order to expand usage beyond a single household, an Extra Member account must be established in the future on Max.

Apart from his initial statement, Max also mentions that your Max account is designed for you and those you reside with. By acquiring the Additional Member Option, WarnerMedia subscribers who are billed separately can extend their Max subscription to a friend or family member not living with them. He further explains that this additional member will have access to the subscription benefits.

  • Stream from anywhere that Max is available (they don’t need to live with the account owner).
  • Stream on any supported device (1 device at a time).
  • Have their own account, password, and 1 profile.
  • Enjoy the same plan features as the account owner (e.g. if the owner has the Premium plan, the extra member can enjoy 4K Ultra HD video quality on select titles).

At present, each Max account can only have one additional member. However, users who establish Extra Member profiles will be allowed to transfer their individual adult accounts, thereby preserving their watch history, recommendations, and other settings from their former account. Essentially, this means you won’t need to rebuild your Max account from the ground up when complying with the password-sharing restriction.

JB Perrette, head of global streaming and games at Warner Bros Discovery, spoke about the progression of their password-sharing restrictions. He emphasized that “Additional Member Add-On and Profile Transfer are significant enhancements for our streaming service, Max, which aim to give viewers more ways to access top-tier content affordably and offer subscribers greater control over their accounts. These improvements make it easier for existing subscribers to add a new user to their account or seamlessly transfer their profile to another user outside their household, ensuring uninterrupted access to Max for the additional member.

Streamers often present password-sharing restrictions as acts of kindness. It remains to be seen how strict and swiftly implemented Max’s password-sharing restrictions will be.

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2025-04-22 23:02