Max Password Sharing Crackdown Is Coming (arstechnica.com) 22
Warner Bros. Discovery said a password crackdown for its Max streaming service is coming later this year, joining competitors Netflix and Disney. TheWrap reports: JB Perrette, WBD's CEO and president of global streaming and games, said the initiative would launch later this year with a broader rollout in 2025. "We think, relative to the scale of our business, it's a meaningful opportunity," Perrette said during Morgan Stanley's 2024 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The push to crack down on password sharing comes as Warner Bros. Discovery narrowed its streaming loss to $55 million during its fourth quarter of 2023, down from a loss of $217 million a year ago. For the full year, it swung to a profit of $103 million, compared to a loss of $1.59 billion in 2022.
Looking ahead, WBD said its DTC business would have "modestly negative" EBITDA in the first half of 2024 before turning profitable in the second half. WBD is targeting $1 billion of direct-to-consumer EBITDA in 2025. In its fourth quarter, Warner Bros. Discovery added 1.8 million subscribers in its direct-to-consumer division for a total of 97.7 million. The DTC segment's results include Max, Discovery+ and traditional HBO cable subscriptions. Parrette also discussed interest in transactional ads, notes Ars Technica. Per Perrette: "On the ad format size, we've made lots of improvements from where we were, but we still have a lot of ad format enhancements that will give us more things that we can go to marketers with, [like] shoppable ads [and] other elements of the ad format side of the house that we can improve."
Looking ahead, WBD said its DTC business would have "modestly negative" EBITDA in the first half of 2024 before turning profitable in the second half. WBD is targeting $1 billion of direct-to-consumer EBITDA in 2025. In its fourth quarter, Warner Bros. Discovery added 1.8 million subscribers in its direct-to-consumer division for a total of 97.7 million. The DTC segment's results include Max, Discovery+ and traditional HBO cable subscriptions. Parrette also discussed interest in transactional ads, notes Ars Technica. Per Perrette: "On the ad format size, we've made lots of improvements from where we were, but we still have a lot of ad format enhancements that will give us more things that we can go to marketers with, [like] shoppable ads [and] other elements of the ad format side of the house that we can improve."
It's Slashdot, so here's the code (Score:2)
if EBITDA - Max_Sharing(EBITDA) then
deploy(future(Min_Sharing()), EBITDA)
endif
Re: (Score:2)
that's not a bug: the test will always be true...
Re: It's Slashdot, so here's the code (Score:2)
Huh (Score:2)
What is Warner Bros Discovery Max? Is that what's become of HBO?
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The more you tighten your grip (Score:5, Interesting)
the more users will slip thru your fingers.
Users are moving on. It is only us older folks who grew up with "Television" that will care, and we remember when having "cable TV" was unusual because of the expense -we will do without if the cost is too high. Younger generations get their entertainment elsewhere already -they don't care about streaming networks.
Re:The more you tighten your grip (Score:4, Informative)
Except that's not what happened when Netflix did it. They cracked down on password sharing and gained subscribers. Thing is, the people who are going to pirate are probably already pirating, and those who aren't pirating aren't going to suddenly try to figure out how to pirate when a subscription for a few bucks a month solves the problem.
Most people are just going to roll over and take it, because they've gotta have their boob tube.
Re:The more you tighten your grip (Score:4, Informative)
Except that's not what happened when Netflix did it. They cracked down on password sharing and gained subscribers. Thing is, the people who are going to pirate are probably already pirating, and those who aren't pirating aren't going to suddenly try to figure out how to pirate when a subscription for a few bucks a month solves the problem.
Most people are just going to roll over and take it, because they've gotta have their boob tube.
Exactly. For all the “I’ll just run up the Jolly Rodger” and arguing “it’s easy” you get on tech sites; most users simply want their TV and will pay for it. They don‘t want to mess with finding torrents, installing various tools and searching for content when they can easily find what they want on a pay service whenever they want.
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Some (not all, but a significant number) of people who use torrents do so for reasons other than saving a few bucks. Often, it's because stuff they want just can't be found on legit streaming sites.
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It also is only a matter of time before the MPA (formerly MPAA) starts doing like the RIAA did in the 2000s, and going after users for insane amounts of money. Which means having to have a seed box or a VPN, and hope neither of those leak or the provider get raided. With the extreme success that China and Russia have had with banning VPNs, it is only a matter of time before those laws start being proposed or even enacted in Europe and the US.
This makes me wonder if physical media will make a comeback, and
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Banning VPNs is not trivial, and what Russia and China managed to do was mostly to ban the commercial providers or rather, limit access to them. What they didn't manage to do, mostly because it's kinda impossible, is to actually keep people from running their own VPN services.
People will have to learn how to set them up.
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Netflix and Max are not in the same market segment. They both offer streaming, but they are not equivalent. HBO was always premium movies & shows. Cinemax was a wanna-be HBO. Warner Bros was a 2nd class movie studio & broadcast tv network. Discovery was low rent reality shows and cheap pseudoscience shows. This sounds like a powerful combination... but it just falls flat as a premium experience. Netflix has a more generic appeal. If older folks feel the pinch in their wallet, Max will not b
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>"Discovery was low rent reality shows and cheap pseudoscience shows."
Discovery didn't used to be. A long time ago, they were good. Then came reality shows.
TLC actually used to be great programming. Then came reality shows.
MTV actually used to be music videos. Then came reality shows.
Rinse and repeat with lots of the networks. Not that I hate ALL reality type shows- for example, American Pickers is pretty good. But so many of them suck horribly.
For now, there is still some decent content on the Sci
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>"Most people are just going to roll over and take it"
Poor things, having to actually follow the terms of service.
[Not directed at you/parent] Complain about the crappy shows, or crappy service, or crappy AV specs, or crappy commercialization, or crappy app. Or even the crappy pricing. But for me, hearing people complaining about having to follow what they AGREED to is kinda annoying. Yeah, you bought a movie pass, admit one, then you continuously snuck someone else in with you "for free" and now you
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Users are moving on.
It's a nice fantasy of yours, but that's all it is. The reality is there was a reason the password crackdown was carefully rolled out in stages. In between each expansion it was evaluated. In each evaluation it was determined to be a success for the bottom line and the project expanded.
An insignificant number of users are moving on because of these password sharing crackdowns, far more insignificant than the number of users who go out and get their own accounts. There's a reason all other companies are foll
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Have you met Gen Z / Alpha?
They don't care about old-school streaming services. They have already moved on.
remember: they canceled "Raised by Wolves" (Score:2)
They can go fuck themselves (Score:2)