Warner Bros. have official announced the HBO Max price increase
For the first time since the streaming platform’s launch, an HBO MAX price increase has been officially announced. The price change will be effective on January 12 as the HBO Max no-ads monthly subscription in the United States will rise from $14.99 to $15.99.
A dollar doesn’t seem like too much to worry about, but it’s a 7% increase. Current HBO Max subscribers will see the change on Saturday, February 11 when their next billing cycle is executed.
“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,” the company stated on the HBO Max no-ads monthly subscription.
The HBO Max price increase comes after Warner Bros. Discovery, which was created after Discovery acquired WarnerMedia in 2022, made a number of content reductions intended to decrease costs. Aside from removing 200 earlier Sesame Street episodes and a number of exclusive film releases, HBO Max also canceled their original series Minx and HBO’s The Nevers. Additionally, three seasons of The Flintstones and 256 vintage Looney Tunes cartoons were also taken down.
A WBD representative confirmed that the $9.99 per month cost of the HBO Max with ads subscription is still in effect. As of Thursday, the HBO Max website displayed revised prices for the ad-free subscription of $15.99 per month ($149.99/year) and the ad-supported option of $9.99/month ($99.99/year).
The price increase was inevitable since JB Perrette, the president and CEO of global streaming and games, already hinted at it. “It will have been three years since pricing has moved, which we think is an opportunity, particularly in this environment,” said Perrette. “We believe there’s actually some pricing advantage for us on the ad-free HBO Max service and we can probably move north of where the prices are today.”