- Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav confirms that they will someday tackle the password-sharing issue, but not right now.
- David confirms that their quality content gives them the real opportunity to raise the subscription prices at HBO Max.
- But for now, the streaming service wants to focus on deliveing quality content to its users.
David Zaslav, the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, believes that the content on HBO Max is extremely good, but it is underpriced. During the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology conference, David also talked about the password-sharing issue. While the increase in subscription pricing and the crackdown on password sharing are imminent, David explains why exactly they aren’t dealing with this right away.
For the unquantified, when it comes to streaming platforms, password sharing is one of the biggest concerns. Basically, password sharing allows a user to share their password and other login information with their friends and family members. And without a robust anti-password-sharing system, these other users can easily access the content on the streaming platform without actually buying a subscription. You could say that at the price of a single subscription, password sharing allows more than one user to access the streaming content, in this case, HBO Max.
Over the years, we have seen several streaming giants cracking down on password sharing, so it’s expected for HBO Max to do the same. However, it seems like HBO Max is less concerned about this issue, at least for now. As confirmed by David Zaslav, they want their subscribers to fall in love with their content and the exclusive series they bring to the table. Then, when the users start to trust HBO Max for its content, the streaming platform will slowly start to push password sharing.
“People are really starting to love HBO Max. That’s the key. We want them to fall in love with our content, with our series, with the differentiated offering outside the U.S. and then over time, it’s a little tricky, with the password sharing, we’re going to begin to push on that. – David Zaslav
The easiest solution for password sharing for streaming platforms would definitely be raising the subscription pricing. However, as confirmed by David, HBO Max first wants to grab the attention of worldwide users before asking them to pay more. With the number of competitors in the market, we have seen several streaming services dropping their prices to stay in the business.
That being said, David confirmed that with their quality content, there’s an opportunity for them to raise the pricing. So, we might actually see an increase in the subscription pricing for HBO Max sooner than later.
