Someone might want to tell David Zaslav to read the room. Despite people’s ongoing frustration with the rising prices of streaming services—and just about everything else—the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) thinks that there is reason for HBO Max to charge more.
Zaslav shared his sentiments while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Cornucopia + Technology conference today in San Francisco. The Hollywood Reporter quoted Zaslav as saying:
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. We think we’re way underpriced.
Today, HBO Max starts at $10 per month with ads, $17/month for no ads, and $21/month for no ads and premium features (4K streaming, Dolby Atmos, and the ability to stream from more devices simultaneously and perform more downloads). The streaming platform has raised prices twice since launching (as Max) in May 2023. In June 2024, the Standard, ad-free plan went from $16/month to $17/month, and annual subscription fees went up by $20 or $10, depending on the plan. Subscription fees also increased in January 2023.
One of the ways the recently re-renamed HBO Max will try to make more money from its viewership is by getting tougher about subscribers sharing passwords with other households. The streaming service was supposed to crack down on password sharing in 2024, but Zaslav said today that HBO Max hasn't “been pushing” against password sharing yet. That’s largely because WBD's trying to get people to “fall in love" with HBO Max's content first, Zaslav noted.
Once viewers are seemingly hooked on HBO Max, WBD would ideally like to charge more. Per Variety, Zaslav said today that WBD has a "real ability" to raise prices as "people become more and more in love with the quality that we have, and the series that we have, and the offering that we have."
The executive reportedly recalled a time when people relied on broadcast and cable for their TV entertainment and paid more than what the average person pays for streaming today: