HBO Max sends ominous email to customers who share their accounts with friends and family
HBO 's Max is sending out unsettling emails warning users to stop letting friends and relatives mooch off of their accounts.
The popular streaming service, which recently came under fire for rebranding yet again, has been playing watchdog with its subscribers - silently monitoring if more people are using an account than there should be.
Still technically known as Max, as the official name change back to HBO Max is set for this summer, the platform has been issuing reminders that only people in the same house can share an account.
'Looks like you're sharing your Max account,' the email, which was sent and reviewed by DailyMail.com on Wednesday, says in bold.
'It appears that you may be sharing your Max account with people you don't live with.'
The message then urges users to purchase an add-on that allows more people to use their account to watch top shows such as The White Lotus.
According to the Max help center, 'accounts are intended for the account owner (the person who created the account) and the people they live with.'
'If you don't live with the account owner, you need to sign up for your own Max account.'
While some subscribers may be taken aback by the seemingly targeted notice, Max's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) admitted it is mostly just for show - at least for now.
'It's very soft messaging that will start getting firmer and more visible to subscribers over the months to come,' WBD's global streaming CEO, JB Perrette, said last Thursday on a company call, according to Business Insider.
Perrette asserted these reprimands will get more harsh by the end of the year or early 2026.
Max was the last of the prominent streaming services to fight back against freeloaders, first announcing its plans in May last year.
The pivot was comparable to what Netflix did in 2023 - allowing account holders to add extra members for a cost. But to make it better value, the price of extra people is lower than a whole new subscription.
In November 2024, WBD's finance chief Gunnar Wiedenfels also said the implementation of the policy that has left many viewers furious would begin with 'very soft messaging.'
This 'messaging,' such as the above email, encourages members who share accounts with other households to 'pay a little bit more,' Wiedenfels explained.
A basic Max subscription with advertisements costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 each year.
The standard plan without commercials is $16.99 each month or $169.99 for the year, while the premium plan is a monthly $20.99 or yearly $209.99.
To add an extra member to any plan, it costs $7.99, according to Max's website.
After the slow and steady technique, the company said it will take more extreme action - like Perrette mentioned - such as limiting access to users within a single household.
Even though that phase has yet to be entered, subscribers have expressed outrage at HBO's 'greed' and called out the eerie emails as 'stupid.'
In a Reddit thread from about five months ago, someone shared an email they got from Max, stating the account was being used by too many people.
Instead of offering an upgrade, the platform told the subscriber to reset their password.
'Woke up to this email today. I am sharing my account with family and we live all over the country had to break down the bad news to everyone,' they wrote.
The comment section went up in flames - with many of the more than 100 angry TV lovers claiming Max was only bluffing.
'I got an email and ignored it. So far so good,' one Redditor said. 'If my family gets kicked off, I'm cancelling.'
'They've removed and cancelled tons of great content, raised process, unnecessarily rebranded twice, and still haven't fixed their broken app, and now they're cracking down on password sharing? No f**king way, HBO,' they added.
Another chimed in: 'First they show ads on the ad free version and now they're ending password sharing? Damn greed ruining the good things.'
'This is such a stupid way to crack down on this. Disney+ lets you get a code, so does Netflix. Now you have to go through multiple steps if you are away from home on vacation and logged in a different device.
'This is a pretty stupid crackdown attempt since you can just change the password and keep on going no?' one person pointed out.
WBD announced the streaming service Max will return to its original name, HBO Max, in the summer on Wednesday.
The network revealed the shock reversal at its star-studded Upfront event on Wednesday, and even joked that they can't wait to hear talk show hosts like John Oliver poke fun at the overhaul.
The change comes just two years after HBO Max changed its name to just Max.
Speaking at the event held at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Wednesday, Shauna Spenley, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Direct-to-Consumer, said: 'You're probably thinking, wow, these guys love to rebrand.
'Well, you know, it's been about two years so that's roughly our track record, so right now is probably the right time.
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