HBO Max Leader After Price Hike: ‘No Consumers Are Asking for More Content’

You’re paying more for HBO Max now. But Warner Bros. Discovery leaders assume you don’t want more movies and shows for that money. JB Perrette, the company’s CEO for streaming and games said on today’s earning’s call, “No consumers anywhere in the world right now are asking for more content.”

Really? Your company lost the NBA and then you raised your prices and we should be thankful you’re not giving us more value for our dollar? You dumped most of your animated catalog to Tubi and the price remained the same.

Crying Foul

WBD CEO David Zaslav dismissed any disappointment over the feeble HBO Max sports package, claiming, “We were so robust in our storytelling, we did not find these sports were providing enough… incremental subs. We did not get that many.”

I see. You didn’t get more sports-related subscriptions because your stories were just too good.

What Comes Next?

The company announced it ended the third quarter with 128 million global streaming subscribers, up 2.3 million from the end of June. It’s been more than a year since the company separated its domestic and international subscribers, but we can assume most growth is international. CEO David Zaslav said the company is on a trajectory to hit 150 million subscribers by the end of 2026.

But will Warner Bros. Discovery exist as a standalone entity next year? Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount are all rumored to be preparing bids for WBD. Some bidders may want the entire company, some may only want the library or the movie studio or the linear channels. As we discovered yesterday, an announcement is expected before Christmas.

To be clear, Warner Bros. Discovery has been on a hot streak with a string of theatrical and streaming hits. Original stories like “Sinners,” “Weapons,” and “One Battle After Another” have been a breath of fresh air. We desperately need more of that.

But those films seem like outliers compared to the rest of the company’s slate, which is an endless series of reboots and sequels. In today’s call, the company announced a new “Gremlins” sequel will hit theaters in November of 2027.

The future of HBO Max and the linear channels like TNT, CNN, and HGTV will greatly depend on which company takes over. For consumers, the best outcome would be keeping Warner Bros. Discovery as a standalone operation. Consolidation may make a more convenient result, but the content output would drop and the price would rise.

But maybe we don’t need more content. At least, that’s what JB Perrette says.