TL;DR
- Warner Bros. Discovery announced the price of HBO Max’s ad-free plan is going up by a dollar.
- This is the first time the price of the streaming service’s ad-free plan has increased.
- The new price is scheduled to go into effect today, but existing subscribers will start paying the new price in February.
If you’re an HBO Max subscriber, we have a little bit of bad news for you. The streaming service is upping the price of its ad-free plan for the first time.
Warner Bros. Discovery has announced (via Variety) that it will be raising the monthly price of its ad-free HBO Max subscription plan. Starting today, the subscriptions in the US will jump up by a dollar, changing the cost from $15 to $16 per month.
The move isn’t necessarily unexpected as the company hinted at a price hike back in November when investors were told the company had an “opportunity” to increase the price of HBO Max’s ad-free tier.
Warner Bros. Discovery told Variety, “This price increase of one dollar will allow us to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users.”
Although new subscribers will have to pay $16 starting today, existing subscribers won’t. If you’re an existing subscriber, the company says the rate increase won’t go into effect until the next billing cycle on or after February 11.
HBO Max also has an ad-supported model that was created in June 2021 that goes for $10 per month. Whether the price of this plan will also go up, the company’s reps didn’t provide an answer.
As Warner Bros. Discovery continues to try and cut costs by removing content, canceling shows, and preventing the release of exclusive movies for tax purposes, it’s not hard to argue that it seems the company wants you to pay more for less. At the same time, however, the company is preparing to merge HBO Max with its Discovery Plus platform this year to create a single service that’s expected to be called Max.
