For the first time, Warner Bros. Discovery is raising the price of its HBO Max subscription. As of today, new ad-free customers will pay $16 per month. Existing members who are now paying $15 per month will be required to pay an additional dollar beginning with their next billing cycle, but no later than February 11th.
According to the firm, the one-dollar price hike will enable them to continue investing in creating culture-defining content and improving the customer experience for all consumers. It is unclear if the price of the ad-supported plan, which now costs $10 per month, would also rise.
HBO Max was released in May 2020 and has not seen a price rise in almost three years. Warner Bros. Discovery intends to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ this spring, so the timing of the price increase is curious, especially considering that the firm has not yet said how much the merged service would cost or even what it will be called. According to a recent source, the merged streaming service might simply be named “Max.”
Subscribers may be dissatisfied with the price hike. Since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery last year to become Warner Bros. Discovery, the business has been slashing expenditures at HBO Max. Some projects were discontinued, titles were withdrawn from the site, and unreleased exclusive films were substituted with tax writeoffs. Despite the recent addition of new episodes, films, and other material to the platform, there is an argument to be made that Warner Bros. Discovery is asking more for less.
