# HBO 32 Hacker News commenters recommended HBO and 32 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for prestige shows that many rate above Netflix and Amazon. Critics say quality has slipped, and price rises and ads have followed. ## Why people recommend it - Prestige, high-quality shows (7 comments): "HBO still makes money off decades old IP because much of their decades old IP is made to the highest standards in television." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48799937)) "HBO on the other hand has the highest batting average, and the brand actually still stands for quality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164420)) "HBO was and still is the gold standard for premium cable content." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161368)) - Better than Netflix and Amazon (5 comments): "HBO is destination television - it's the taste that Netflix lacks and so desperately needs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157171)) "Nothing that Amazon has produced comes even close to what HBO produced between 1995-2015." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46162253)) "Netflix has some good originals, but it's not in the same category as HBO/WB" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46164335)) - Viewers still look forward to it (3 comments): "i am literally looking forward to watching HBO when i get home from work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48111891)) "I've maintained an HBO subscription for that entire time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161793)) "I love that HBO still carries on" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46520008)) - Classic back catalog worth rewatching (2 comments): "HBO has some timeless TV classics that I keep rewatching every year" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46158953)) "None of those are close to peak HBO content sorry." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157694)) ## What people warn about - Quality has declined over time (6 comments): "HBO died many years ago when ATT fired all the executives that had the taste and vision to make HBO what it was." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157403)) "I have trouble imagining that HBO would ever again be involved in something on par with The Wire" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157361)) "HBO had been degraded by sadly. Disnified. Adult oriented HBO quality shows don't exist anymore" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46167094)) - Junk and reality TV filler (3 comments): "If you leave the featured areas and venture into any of the categories, you will see that HBO is also full of junk." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161080)) "suddenly the frontpage was filled with promotions of this inane reality-TV crap" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46238460)) "I opened up the HBO app and saw the full screen background ad for Fboy Island" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46161557)) - Price increases and ads (2 comments): "Once "premium" offerings like HBO, which were ad-free on cable TV, now has ads on its paid streaming version." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47615958)) "Then HBO did a machine gun fire of price increases so I cancelled." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47771024)) - Management focused on cost cutting (2 comments): "the management layers at Disney, Netflix, HBO, you name it, they don't seem care about the actual product" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49786026)) "HBO randomly took a million things off its platform so that it could do accounting tricks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48749998)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [YouTube Premium](https://hackerapproved.com/p/youtube-premium.md): 197 recommend - [Netflix](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netflix.md): 181 recommend - [Nebula](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nebula.md): 58 recommend - [Amazon Prime Video](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-prime-video.md): 29 recommend - [Disney+](https://hackerapproved.com/p/disney-plus.md): 23 recommend ## Where to get it - [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=HBO+Max+subscription&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link) - [Official site](https://www.hbo.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "HBO", https://hackerapproved.com/p/hbo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).