HBO Max is increasing its monthly subscription price by a dollar, from $14.99 to $15.99. This will be its first upsurge in pricing since its launching in May 2020, according to Deadline. This price change will be on subscribers’ next billing cycle on or after February 11, 2023, according to The Verge.
“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 via The Verge.
The streaming service has an extensive library of movies and television shows, including blockbuster programming, like Euphoria and House of the Dragon. On top of that, HBO Max also offers a grand library of classic films and shows, including The Wire and The Sopranos, shows that are considered to be the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time). In addition, the streaming platform also regularly receives third-party content and streaming rights to new movies earlier than the competition, according to GameRant.
According to Deadline, majority of the major streaming services have been increasing their prices of recent, which is a result not only of the expansionary economic environment but also the onset acknowledgement of the burdensome costs of delivering original programming through the internet.
When HBO Max’s parent company WarnerMedia merged with Discovery in April 2022, the combined companies had $30 billion market cap, which was half of the $60 billion they rated immediately after combining. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav noted at a recent conference that “it’s going to be hard” to meet the company’s 2023 earnings forecast of $12 billion, and this price increase could help close some of that gap, according to CNBC.
Coming this Spring, according to The Verge, HBO Max and Discovery Plus are set to be merged into single app, which will be reportedly named Max.