The Latest HBO Max And Disney+ Price Increases Make It Clear: The Dream Of Streaming Is Dead

Not for the first or last time, we find ourselves questioning the wisdom of cutting the cord. Supposedly, the dawn of the streaming era was meant to free us from the shackles of cable. Instead of a prepackaged collection of channels to choose from, the ability to subscribe to streaming services and bundles to get all our entertainment beamed straight onto our devices was hailed as an industry game-changer. Netflix and Apple TV were among the first to pioneer this new tech well before the rest, but Disney+ and HBO Max and all the others soon followed suit. Fast forward a handful of years, however, and consumers once again find themselves on the short end of the streaming stick.

At the risk of being outdone by Disney+ recently hitting subscribers with significant increases (which officially goes into effect as of October 21, 2025), Warner Bros. Discovery has come out swinging with price hikes of its own. The Hollywood Reporter indicates that HBO Max subscribers can look forward to even more where that came from for the third consecutive year, to the tune of between $1 to $2 dollars per month and between $10 to $20 per year (depending on one's plan tier). Adding insult to injury, the news comes right on the heels of WBD confirming what we already knew: According to Variety, the company is fielding "multiple" offers of "unsolicited interest" to acquire all of WBD's assets — including the Warner Bros. studio. Its stock prices are soaring in response to the news, but customers are still footing the bill.

If it wasn't before, it's certainly clear now. This runaway train of consumer-unfriendly tactics shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. And we're just about ready to call a time of death on this entire streaming dream.

If it sounds like we've been banging this "Streaming is now just cable, but worse" drum incessantly for quite some time now, well, that's because we have. Despite all the promises and platitudes that this was unequivocally the future of the business, we've received almost nothing but a steady stream of red flags suggesting the exact opposite. TV shows with images that are too digitally compressed or lack decent lighting, entire studio libraries that have a habit of being removed and vanishing overnight without any warning, and, yes, constant subscription increases that you can set your clocks to have become just a few of the more troubling ones we've had to deal with over the last several years.

There's nothing Hollywood loves more than chasing the next hottest trend (look no further than this ongoing AI fixation), but this streaming venture 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 during the course of a season. The issue isn't going away for film nerds and TV aficionados, either, as this has become a top-to-bottom problem across all streamers ... not just Disney+ or HBO Max. Netflix, Apple TV, Peacock, Paramount+, and more are all equally as guilty in this regard in recent memory. According to a CNBC report, subscribers reported a 13% increase in costs over the past year. For younger demographics, that figure rose to a whopping 20%.

As studios continue to discourage workarounds like password sharing and "churn" (the industry term for users unsubscribing and re-subscribing to services within a certain period of time), it's worth asking ourselves whether these costs are worth it anymore.