In This Story
Warner Bros. Discovery announced Tuesday that it is raising the price on all its ad-free plans for its streaming platform Max effective immediately.
The news comes just days before the June 16 premiere of the second season of “House of the Dragon.” The prequel to the wildly-successful “Game of Thrones” television show broke records when nearly 10 million people tuned in to its series premiere in 2022.
In a release shared with Quartz, Warner Bros. Discovery said that the price of Max’s monthly ad-free plan will increase by $1 per month to $16.99. The price of its yearly ad-free plan will rise by $20 a year to $169.99. And subscribers of the company’s ultimate ad-free plan, which allows users to stream on four devices at once, will pay $10 more a year at a total of $209.99. The cost of the company’s ad-supported plans will remain the same.
The price hikes are effective starting Tuesday for new customers and will start showing up in existing customers’ bills beginning on or after July 4, depending on their next scheduled payment.
Max is not the only streaming service to recently announce price increases. In May, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock announced it was raising its prices by $2 a month to $7.99 for its ad-free plan and $13.99 for its premium plan. The music streaming platform Spotify also just announced price hikes.
As videos streamers struggle to achieve profitability, many have turned to higher subscription prices, ads, and bundling to generate more revenue.
Last month, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced they would be bundling their Disney+, Hulu and Max services at a discounted price.
That same month, Amazon announced it was introducing three new interactive ad formats to its Prime Video streaming service.