HBO Max is going to cost more if Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has anything to say about it. At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference yesterday (Sept. 10), Zaslav revealed that he thinks that the quality of HBO Max means that you should pay more for it, even as his competition raises prices all around him, making it more difficult than ever to determine which of the best streaming services to subscribe to.
"The fact that this is quality — and that’s true across our company, motion picture, TV production and streaming quality — we all think that gives us a chance to raise price,” Zaslav said at the conference. “We think we’re way underpriced."
Now, to be fair to Zaslav, he immediately followed that up by saying he wasn't going to rush to raise prices, despite his assertion that the streaming service is currently too cheap. And even though WBD's streaming executive JB Perrette revealed just last month that HBO Max's password crackdown is getting "aggressive," Zaslav said WBD wasn't going to rush that plan either.
“We haven’t been pushing on the password sharing and the economics yet,” Zaslav clarified. “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 of the U.S."
Price hikes will continue to be a vicious cycle until you stop subscribing
There's an interpretation of this quote that suggests password-sharing crackdowns and price hikes could come first in the U.S., where the HBO Max brand is already established, with a global push to follow later, only when HBO Max begins to achieve a greater market share. It wouldn't surprise me if this turned out to be the way WBD rolls things out. Regardless, it's clear another HBO Max price hike is coming, and you need to start bracing yourself for the eventuality.
Until profitability is hurt following a price hike or similar tactic, there's no reason for streaming services to stop. You'll have to vote with your wallet to change that.
Frankly, this would have likely been the case before Zaslav's comments. HBO Max is the streaming service that has kept their prices the same the longest following the Apple TV Plus price hike, so it was next up in the rotation anyway.
Unfortunately, this constant cycle of price hikes is our new reality until people stop subscribing. There's been some evidence that people are starting to cut back — a 2024 study showed people spent 23% less on streaming in 2024 than in 2023 — but more and more streaming services report they are turning profits as they add commercials to base tiers, crack down on password sharing and increase prices across the board.
Until profitability is hurt following a price hike or similar tactic, there's no reason for streaming services to stop. You'll have to vote with your wallet to change that.
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