Max Is Getting Ready For Its Own Password-Sharing Crackdown (theverge.com) 42
Max will begin a gradual password-sharing crackdown with "soft messaging" over the next few months, with a potential price increase to follow. The Verge reports: During Warner Bros. Discovery's Q3 earnings call on Thursday, chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said this initial rollout would be followed by more progress in 2025 and 2026. Wiedenfels called password sharing "a form of price rises," as the company is "asking members who have not signed up, or multi-household members to pay a little bit more." This isn't the first time we've heard about Max's interest in password sharing, but now we have more details about when -- and how -- it will all begin. [...]
Wiedenfels didn't rule out the possibility of a Max price increase, either. He said that the "premium nature" of the service leaves "a fair amount of room to continue to push a price we've been judicious about." Max last raised prices across its ad-free plans in June.
Wiedenfels didn't rule out the possibility of a Max price increase, either. He said that the "premium nature" of the service leaves "a fair amount of room to continue to push a price we've been judicious about." Max last raised prices across its ad-free plans in June.
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Max or HBO
So I take it that HBO is somehow linked to whatever Max is? I know of HBO.
Yes. After a couple of other names, HBO ended up with the name "HBO Max" for their streaming service. Discovery then merged their crap content into the service, and rebranded it as Max. Discovery used to be high class content, but that's two decades ago; now it's just reality trash, true crime trash and the like.
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That's because the old Discovery CEO decided to opt for more "reality" shows and less "documentary" shows, likely a cost cutting measure. So only the really popular scripted shows survived like Mythbusters, while the high class documentary and other scripted productions got axed in favor of more reality shows.
And by reality shows, I'm not talking scripted reality shows like Deadlie
Explaining the joke (Score:2)
WB/Discovery's CEO decided to kill off the HBO branding for their flagship streaming service, renaming it to something that isn't even the full name of its lower prestige brand that's more associated with softcore porn late at night, leading to endless questions of "wtf is max?"
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You are clearly not the target demographic if you are not already familiar with such a premium video service as Max. /s
Pay no attention, this is just more of David Zaslav enshittifying what was one of the better streaming services.
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Max will be more difficult to police password sharing. Unlike netflix, which is purely subscription based, Max has the option to log in via a cable provider. I am on a legacy ATT cellular plan that got free Max streaming. So I just log into my ATT account from the app to unlock it. Granted it would be foolish of me to share my ATT account password with someone, it is possible to login for them by using the alphanumeric 6 character code and do it remotely.
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MAX (et al) should remember, that their whole business model is based on the fact that streaming is slightly more convenient that pirating content.
Pro Tip : keep up with this shit, and it's back to "yo ho ho".
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but its not direct login exclusive. that makes it tougher to police. They might only be able to police accounts like yours, and not accounts with external verification like mine.
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but its not direct login exclusive.
Neato? I don't want to have that, whatever it means. My win comes with no TV package nor AT&T (big win there). I don't share (or give to share) passwords so my dog sleeps, I'm glad you are safe though.
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... it is possible to login for them by using the alphanumeric 6 character code and do it remotely.
This is and was also possible with Netflix. Netflix asks for a code on the TV, you do stuff on your mobile, enter the code on the TV and it's working. ... but that doesn't actually work in the long run. Netflix notes the apparently IP of that new TV and the home network it is on. When you go back to your own home and try to get in, it asks you to re-authenticate because it's on a different apparent IP and home network. If you re-auth it, the TV at the other household loses access and must also re-auth. It
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but unlike netflix, MAX has to also use 3rd party authorizations from cable providers similar to the way you use the Paramount app. So I don't have a specific Max account they track. It redirects me to my cable provider (in this case its ATT Wireless) and I authenticate with them and they pass a token back to the app which unlocks it. Under Account it just says 'Billed through AT&T' with Ad-Free (monthly) listed as the current plan. They probably aren't billing ATT per individual user, but likely a lic
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You should be modded up, because the online access being granted this way questions of enforcement are raised. Are they only targeting direct sign-ins or are they going to try to target these, i dunno, affiliated? login methods. They have a whole panel on their login screen dedicated to "TV Provider" logins. This is kind of a long tail of their past hanging around. They might end up just pissing off a lot of folks who got HBO in a package with phone or TV package at some point by breaking it semi-intentiona
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They might end up just pissing off a lot of folks who got HBO in a package with phone or TV package at some point by breaking it semi-intentionally.
As if they won't be pissing off all the people that paid for the product directly? I think it's obvious that they don't care about that risk (or they already decided it's worth the risk).
... because the online access being granted this way questions of enforcement are raised.
What questions are those? Are you asking what scope they're applying this change to, or are you questioning whether it's feasible to implement this technically, or are you questioning if it's legal to do so, or something else?
Scope: I have no clue.
Technically, it's still easy to do it on those provider logins as well.
Legal
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Maybe those will still work and they'll just shortchange everyone else? Even if that's the case, if they want to turn the screws, they could make you re-auth every so often.
I don't know how they're passing the tokens back, but SSO tokens often pass back the remote username. Like when you go to a site that uses "Sign in with Facebook" or Google or Microsoft or whatever... those usually pass back your remote account name. That allows them to map {service}+{username} as your account, which they can then track
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Max will be more difficult to police password sharing. Unlike netflix, which is purely subscription based, Max has the option to log in via a cable provider. I am on a legacy ATT cellular plan that got free Max streaming. So I just log into my ATT account from the app to unlock it.
I'm not sure why you think using a third-party authentication method is going to hamper MAX from enforcing password sharing in some way. But, as someone who worked in the cable industry until recently, I can assure you it wont.
It doesn't matter if you are giving your login info direct to them or not, they know who it is that is logging in. That's how federated logins work. Same as when you log into a website with Google, a Facebook login, or an Apple ID. It's not like cable or wireless companies are just bu
Max? (Score:2)
Never heard of the guy.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]
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Because this is Max: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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Sam & Max goes all the way back to the 80s with Steve Purcell's comics. The old LucasArts made a game out of it called Sam & Max Hit the Road in the early 90s, which was a point-and-click adventure that is widely considered to be a classic by fans of the genre. Later on, Telltale did episodic games based on Sam & Max, though it's hard to get them to run since Telltale went out of business. A small dev house called SkunkApe Games is doing remasters of Sam & Max, albeit not without (minor)
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Max Headroom. (Score:2)
Max Headroom.
Or
Max Power.
we taking about the same Max? (Score:2)
Premium (Score:2)
"Well of course it must be premium. We did the Sopranos, right?"
Its name recognition is low enough that I had to query who it was associated with... but sure. Go ahead and raise the price. That will tell you what you need to know about the perceived value of your service.
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The idiots in charge dropped the HBO Go app in favor of the Max app, even when far more people are familiar with HBO than Cinemax.
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HBO and Cinemax are under the same umbrella organization, so "Max" is really HBO/Cinemax streaming. The idiots in charge couldn't figure out that HBO is a better known brand so dropped the wrong app.
Max who? (Score:2)
I am guessing its not Max Verstappen (current Formula 1 champion) He only needs a few points in the next 3 races to keep his title.
Headroom (Score:2)
Max Headroom.
We can't be talking about the same "Max" (Score:3)
The "Max" I've heard about the past few years is the one that keeps killing off its series, followed by the complete removal of any already published episodes of those series so it can claim a tax write-down. There's certainly nothing "premium" about that Max, though.
"Me too" (Score:1)
password sharing lol (Score:1)