HBO Max Announces First Price Hike, Effective Immediately - Variety

Warner Bros. Discovery is raising the monthly terms of HBO Max for the archetypal clip since launching it much than 2 years ago.

Effective Thursday, Jan. 12, the terms of a caller HBO Max no-ads monthly subscription successful the U.S. volition summation from $14.99 to $15.99 (plus applicable taxes). That’s a astir 7% increase. Existing HBO Max subscribers who are presently paying $14.99/month volition spot their monthly complaint summation to $15.99/month effectual their adjacent billing rhythm connected oregon aft Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023.

“This terms summation of 1 dollar volition let america to proceed to put successful providing adjacent much culture-defining programming and improving our lawsuit acquisition for each users,” the institution said successful a statement.

The terms hike comes arsenic Warner Bros. Discovery, formed by Discovery’s 2022 acquisition of WarnerMedia, has made a bid of contented cutbacks aimed astatine reducing expenses. Among those: HBO Max expunged multiple exclusive movie titles and archetypal series and 200 older “Sesame Street” episodes, and besides canceled HBO Max archetypal bid “Minx” (reversing the Season 2 renewal) and HBO’s “The Nevers.” HBO Max besides removed 256 classical “Looney Tunes” shorts and 3 seasons of “The Flintstones.”

HBO Max launched successful May 2020 astatine $14.99 per month, backmost erstwhile it was portion of AT&T-owned WarnerMedia. In June 2021, the institution introduced an ad-supported HBO Max program that costs $9.99/month; WBD reps did not instantly respond to an enquiry astir whether the terms of that bundle besides volition beryllium increasing.

Warner Bros. Discovery had previously signaled that an HBO Max terms hike was coming. In November, JB Perrette, president and CEO of planetary streaming and games, told investors that the institution had an “opportunity” to summation the terms of HBO Max’s ad-free tier. By 2023, helium said, “it volition person been 3 years since pricing has moved, which we deliberation is an opportunity, peculiarly successful this environment… We judge there’s really immoderate pricing vantage for america connected the ad-free [HBO Max] work and we tin astir apt determination northbound of wherever the prices are today.”

Meanwhile, the media conlgomerate is prepping a merged HBO Max-Discovery+ platform, acceptable to motorboat successful the U.S. successful the outpouring of 2023. The institution hasn’t announced details connected pricing, packaging oregon a sanction yet -- although “Max” is the starring contender astatine this point.

Warner Bros. Discovery said past period that it could incur content impairment and improvement write-off charges of up to $3.5 billion as the effect of the merger.