This isn’t the first or last time we’ll question whether to cut the cord. It’s assumed that the dawn of the streaming era was intended to free us from the chains of cable. Instead of a pre-packaged collection of channels to choose from, the ability to subscribe to streaming services and bundles to stream all of our entertainment directly to our devices has been hailed as an industry game-changer. Netflix and Apple TV were among the first to launch this new technology well before others, but Disney+ and HBO Max and everyone else quickly followed suit. However, a few years later, consumers once again find themselves short of streaming resources.
At the risk of being outdone by Disney+ which recently hit its subscribers with significant increases (which will officially go into effect on October 21, 2025), Warner Bros. Discovery is getting away with its own price increases. The Hollywood Reporter says HBO Max subscribers can expect even more where it comes from for the third year in a row, to the tune of between $1 and $2 per month and between $10 and $20 per year (depending on one’s plan tier). Adding insult to injury, the news comes on the heels of WBD’s news, confirming what we already knew: according to Variety, the company is responding to “multiple” offers from “unsolicited interest” to acquire all of WBD’s assets, including the Warner Bros. studio. Its stock prices soar in response to this news, but customers continue to foot the bill.
If that wasn’t the case before, it’s certainly clear now. This relentless train of consumer-hostile tactics shows no signs of stopping any time soon. And we’re about to call this whole streaming dream a death.
Streaming costs are getting too high to ignore
If it seems like we’ve been banging that “Streaming is now just cable, but worse” drum for a while now, well, that’s because we have. Despite all the promises and platitudes that this was unequivocally the future of the business, we received almost nothing other than a constant stream of red flags suggesting the exact opposite. TV shows with images that are overly digitally compressed or lacking decent lighting, entire studio libraries that have a habit of being taken down and disappearing overnight without any warning, and, yes, constant subscription increases that you can set your clocks for are just some of the more troubling shows we’ve had to deal with in recent years.
There’s nothing Hollywood loves more than chasing the next hottest trend (look no further than this continued fixation on AI), but this streaming company seems to be eating its own tail. Sports fans already know the headaches of balancing cable and multiple streaming services just to catch all the games they want to watch in a season. The problem isn’t going away for movie fans and TV aficionados either, as it has become a top-to-bottom problem for all streamers… not just Disney+ or HBO Max. Netflix, Apple TV, Peacock, Paramount+ and many others are all equally guilty of this in recent memory. According to a CNBC report, subscribers reported a 13% increase in their costs over the past year. For young people, this figure reaches a whopping 20%.
As studios continue to discourage workarounds like password sharing and “churn” (an industry term for users who unsubscribe and resubscribe to services within a certain period of time), it’s worth asking whether these costs are still worth it.
