HBO Max’s first worth hike raises the month-to-month fee by $1

HBO Max is the following streaming service to get a worth improve, its first one since launching in 2020. Beginning Thursday, the price of a brand new subscription to HBO Max will improve from $14.99 to $15.99 monthly. Current subscribers can pay the brand new worth with their subsequent billing cycle “on or after” February eleventh.

“This worth improve of 1 greenback will enable us to proceed to spend money on offering much more culture-defining programming and bettering our buyer expertise for all customers,” HBO Max wrote in a press e-mail.

Whereas Netflix’s creeping worth hikes have amassed over a number of years, in latest months, many streaming providers raised costs as they attempt to show to buyers that they will construct viable companies.

However with HBO Max’s many latest content material removals, together with Westworld and a whole bunch of basic cartoons and Sesame Road episodes, this worth improve stings only a bit additional, as you’re now paying just a little extra for lots much less content material. It seems that the ad-supported plan will hold its $9.99 monthly value.

WarnerMedia merged with Discovery final April, and the mixed corporations now have a $30 billion market cap — half of the $60 billion they rated instantly after combining. At a latest convention, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav famous that “it’s going to be arduous” to satisfy the corporate’s 2023 earnings forecast of $12 billion, in keeping with CNBC, and this worth improve may assist shut a few of that hole.

This spring, HBO Max and Discovery Plus are set to be merged right into a single app, which is able to reportedly be known as Max.