{"id":2012601,"date":"2025-09-10T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2012601"},"modified":"2025-09-10T22:00:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T22:00:05","slug":"david-zaslav-says-people-are-so-in-love-with-hbos-content-theyll-embrace-price-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/david-zaslav-says-people-are-so-in-love-with-hbos-content-theyll-embrace-price-increases\/","title":{"rendered":"David Zaslav Says People Are So in Love with HBO\u2019s Content They\u2019ll Embrace Price Increases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It\u2019s an interesting theory. People DO fall in love with fandoms every day and end up spending A LOT of money on them. But the question of whether people fall in love with streaming channels is a bit of a different one. At least\u2026 fall in love with them enough not to mind the cost of streaming going up. Price increases have become a necessary evil of our consumption these days. It feels like every day, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/article\/every-streaming-cost-increase-in-2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:another platform is increasing its subscription prices;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">another platform is increasing its subscription prices<\/a>. In most cases, these price increases are treated with a groan and a tolerating sigh at best. But there\u2019s something almost poetic about the picture that David Zaslav is painting of HBO Max\u2019s consumers and their reactions to potential price hikes on the platform. It\u2019s a romantic vision. But is it realistic? We feel, probably not.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>Jessica Miglio\/HBO Max<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Here\u2019s what David Zaslav <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/tv\/news\/why-hbo-max-password-sharing-crackdown-1236514152\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:had to say;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">had to say<\/a> about HBO Max, its subscribers, and price increases on the platform:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"mb-4 border-l-2 pl-5 italic text-tertiary\">\n<div class=\"\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">People are really starting to love HBO Max. That\u2019s 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\u2019s a little tricky, with the password sharing, we\u2019re going to begin to push on that. And I think our ability to raise price 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 will have a real ability because I think the pricing across the board \u2014 not only is there too many players, in order to stay alive, a lot of the players have just decided to drop prices aggressively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Consumers in America would pay twice as much 10 years ago for content. People were spending, on average, $55 for content 10 years ago, and the quality of the content, the amount of content that we\u2019re getting, the spend is 10 or 12 fold and they\u2019re paying dramatically less. I think we want a good deal for consumers, but I think over time, there\u2019s real opportunity, particularly for us, in that quality area, to raise price.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">First, we have to say, HRMMMM. Because we haven\u2019t seen anyone outside of McDonald\u2019s even MENTION a price decrease. I\u2019d like to meet these players that are dropping their prices aggressively. Are they in the room with us? <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/article\/apple-tv-sets-new-price-hike\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Apple TV+: Price Increase;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Apple TV+: Price Increase<\/a>. <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/article\/netflix-price-increases-have-arrived-january-2025-hikes-explained\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Netflix: Price Increase;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Netflix: Price Increase<\/a>. Even <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nerdist.com\/article\/dropout-tv-subscription-price-increase\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dropout.tv\u00a0has raised its streaming subscription costs;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dropout.tv\u00a0has raised its streaming subscription costs<\/a>. The idea that everyone else is undercutting HBO Max by reducing their prices is laughable at best. But it\u2019s also interesting that Zaslav considers the quality of HBO Max to be so far and beyond the quality of other streamers that it has almost a right to raise its prices. At least, that\u2019s what we\u2019re taking away from the discussion.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img alt=\"the last of us finale season 2 recap Ellie, for hbo max price increase article\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/TynmpPddE5AGGXLxF9K.kw--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MTtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/nerdist_761\/de845f4c1bbf14c14dd087f351472323\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>HBO<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The question of whether Americans are paying less for more is also a tricky one. More content absolutely exists, that feels true. But with pricing constantly increasing, it feels like there is no longer any ceiling on what one COULD potentially pay to subscribe to all the streamers. And that does not feel good. How does one mark increasing quality and what it is worth? Where does the price rise end? In some ways, it feels like quality can only continually increase so far, but, pricing, that can increase forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Which brings us to the idea of love. People do <em>love<\/em> content. I personally LOVE content. Nerds wouldn\u2019t be nerds if they didn\u2019t have intense love affairs with TV shows, movies, and more. But should you raise prices as people become more and more in love with your product? We guess capitalism suggests you should. But, in the end, love also has a ceiling. And the more folks have to pay for HBO Max, the less far their love will go. We feel like, in the end, keeping quality and price at a reasonable place and maintaining a welcoming environment that caters to the user experience will go farther than a price increase ever could. But that\u2019s just us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s an interesting theory. People DO fall in love with fandoms every day and end up spending A LOT of money on them. But the question of whether people fall in love with streaming channels is a bit of a different one. At least\u2026 fall in love with them enough not to mind the cost [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2012602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[305116,21917,368378,368377],"class_list":["post-2012601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-david-zaslav","tag-hbo","tag-price-decrease","tag-price-increases"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/David-Zaslav-Says-People-Are-So-in-Love-with-HBOs.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}