HBO Max is the latest video-on-demand streaming service to get a price increase, its first one since launching in 2020. In an email, to subscribers, the company indicated that the cost of a new subscription to HBO Max will increase from $14.99 to $15.99 per month. This is a $1 increment that users will have to fork out. It should be noted that existing subscribers will pay the new price with their next billing cycle “on or after” February 11th.
ALSO READ: HBO Max and Discovery+ to become one streaming service
HBO is one of those streaming services that a few Ugandans get to enjoy with a VPN connection since they are limited to the western world, so the news may not bare a huge impact. However, this sets a trend in the industry that will or has already led to price hikes on other streaming services.
“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,” HBO Max wrote in a press email that we also managed to get as shown below.
While Netflix’s creeping price hikes have accumulated over several years, in recent months, many streaming services raised prices as they try to prove to investors that they can build viable businesses.
HBO Max has recently been removing content, including Westworld and hundreds of classic cartoons and Sesame Street episodes, this price increase stings just a bit extra given that there will be less content. Users are now paying a little more for a lot less content. It appears that the ad-supported plan will keep its $9.99 per month cost.
Between April and August 2022, WarnerMedia merged with Discovery, and the combined companies now have a $30 billion market cap — half of the $60 billion they rated immediately after combining. At a recent conference, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav noted that “it’s going to be hard” to meet the company’s 2023 earnings forecast of $12 billion, according to CNBC, and this price increase could help close some of that gap.
Later this year, the implementation of the HBO Max and Discovery Plus content merger into a single app, which will reportedly be called Max.
