Max, the Warner Bros. Discovery premium service, has boosted the price on its ad-free tiers by $1 per month. There's been a wave of price increases lately as streamers put profits over sheer subscriber growth.
Warner Bros. Discovery has raised the price for the ad-free tiers of Max, the premium streaming service that got off the ground in May 2023.
Max's new pricing, effective immediately, is as follows:
Ad-Free: Monthly plan is up $1, to $16.99 per month. The yearly plan rises by $20, to $169.99. Ad-free allows subs to stream on two devices simultaneously at HD resolution and the ability to download 30 movie titles or TV series.
Ultimate Ad-Free: Monthly plan rises by $1, to $20.99 per month. The yearly plan goes up by $10, to $209.99. That tier allows streaming on four devices at once, access to titles in 4K resolution and up to 100 downloads.
The ad-supported Max plan is unchanged at $9.99 per month or $99 per year.
Launched in May 2023, in the wake of the Discovery-Warner Media merger the year prior, Max effectively combined the former HBO Max service with Discovery+.
WBD did not elaborate on its decision to raise prices, but the increase comes ahead of the June 16 season two debut of "House of the Dragon," the "Game of Thrones" prequel series. However, a price hike on Max follows a general trend in the streaming world in which companies are focused on the pursuit of profits over sheer subscriber growth.
Max was profitable in 2023, a first for the premium streaming service. WBD expects it to remain that way in 2024.
Disney expects its streaming business to turn a profit in its fiscal Q4 of 2024.
Peacock, the NBCU streaming service launched in 2020, was expected to generate peak losses in 2023. It's not yet clear when Peacock, which is gearing up for streaming coverage of the summer Olympic Games in Paris, will turn the corner.
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