Warner Bros. Boss Promises Investors The HBO Password Crackdown And Price Hikes Are Coming

The streaming wars are officially over, and with them goes the golden age of cheap, all-you-can-watch entertainment. Subscription costs are rising, perks are shrinking, and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav just confirmed HBO Max will be no exception.

Speaking at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia and Technology conference this week, Zaslav told investors that while HBO hasn’t yet gone hard on account sharing, that will soon change.

“We haven’t been pushing on the password sharing and the economics yet,” he said, per Variety. “People are really starting to love HBO Max…over time, it’s a little tricky, with the password sharing, we’re going to begin to push on that.”

Translation: enjoy letting your family or roommates borrow your login while you still can.

But that’s not the only shift coming. Zaslav also made it clear that more price hikes are inevitable:

“I think our ability to raise price as people become more and more in love with the quality that we have…the pricing across the board—not only is there too many players, in order to stay alive, a lot of the players have just decided to drop prices aggressively.”

HBO Max subscribers have already felt this squeeze. The first major hike came in 2023 when the base plan rose from $15 to $16 a month. By 2024, the new “Ultimate” tier had climbed to $21. Meanwhile, the brand itself has been in a constant identity crisis: HBO became HBO Max in 2020, then simply Max in 2023, and earlier this year reverted back to HBO Max.

Behind the scenes, Zaslav’s tenure has been marked by the messy Warner Bros.–Discovery merger, which saddled the company with debt and gutted HBO’s library. Now Warner Bros. and Discovery are set to split again by April 2026. The company’s stock sits below $20, a steep fall from its $70 peak in 2021.

And yet, Zaslav—who pocketed $50 million last year—sounds determined to squeeze even more from subscribers. HBO’s upcoming slate includes the Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the long-gestating Green Lantern series, and a full Harry Potter reboot set for 2027. Don’t be surprised if the “privilege” of watching them costs even more by then.

“I think we want a good deal for consumers,” Zaslav said, “but over time, there’s real opportunity, particularly for us, in that quality area, to raise price.”

In other words: brace yourself.