In this photo illustration, the Warner Bros. Discovery logo is displayed on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | Sopa pictures | Light rocket | Getty Images
Warner Bros. Discovery‘s Max announced price increases for its ad-free options on Tuesday as a number of streamers make their memberships more expensive.
The move comes just 12 days before the debut of the second season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon,” whose series premiere drew nearly 10 million viewers, making it the largest in HBO history.
Max currently offers three pricing options: with advertising; ad-free; and completely ad-free, allowing for more devices and downloads than the cheaper plans.
The price of the streaming service’s ad-free option increases by $1 per month to $16.99, while the ad-free annual plan increases by $20 per year to $169.99. The cost of the ultimate ad-free plan also increases by $1 per month to $20.99, while the cost of the ultimate annual plan increases by $10 per year to $209.99. The ad-supported option remains unchanged at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
While pricing for new subscribers will take effect immediately, existing subscribers will see the price increase starting with their next billing cycle on or after July 4th.
The price increase follows Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney’s Decision to bundle their streaming services Disney+, Max and Hulu. The package will be available in both ad-supported and ad-free versions. Although the price was not disclosed, CNBC reported that it will be offered at a discount to make it a more attractive option.
Warner Bros. Discovery missed both revenue and profit estimates for its first-quarter earnings report last month, despite adding two million direct-to-consumer streaming subscribers during the quarter.
In the company’s earnings release, CEO David Zaslav said Warner Bros. Discovery hopes subscribers will stick with the bundled offering to take advantage of cheaper prices and reduce customer loss, which he said is “the killer” of the streaming business .
This is only the second time since its launch that Max has increased prices for its ad-free service. In early 2023, Max increased the price of the ad-free tier from $14.99 to $15.99 per month, an increase that the company said would enable the company to invest in its content and user experience.
Prices are rising across the streaming world. Last month, Comcast’s NBCUniversal increased both ad-supported and ad-free offerings on its Peacock platform by $2 per month ahead of coverage of the Olympics later this summer. Last summer, Netflix has eliminated its cheapest basic ad-free option in the US and UK markets, instead offering a cheaper but ad-supported option and more expensive ad-free options.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
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2024-06-04 17:12:15
www.cnbc.com
