BREAKING: HBO Max Announces First Ever Price Hike Ahead of discovery+ Unification

It was seemingly only a matter of time, but on Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would be raising the price of a monthly ad-free subscription to HBO Max from $14.99 to $15.99 in the United States. The change will be reflected in the bills for existing customers on their next billing cycle on or after Feb. 11.
WBD has not mentioned a price increase for its ad-supported tier, so — for now — that appears to be remaining at $9.99 per month. There has also not apparently been an increase to the annual HBO Max subscriptions, which remain priced at $99.99 for ad-supported and $149.99 for ad-free.
“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,” WBD said in a statement.
This is the first price increase for the streamer since launching in May 2020, but it comes at a curious time. WBD is planning to merge discovery+ with HBO Max this spring, but those services currently have very different price points and clientele. Monthly rates for discovery+ are $4.99 for ad-lite and $6.99 for ad-free.
Related: Which Streaming Services Are Due For Price Hikes in 2023?
Though the company has reportedly settled on a name for the unified service, it has not shared any further details about how the integration will work. However, WBD has been open about how different discovery+ and HBO Max subscribers are, and that there is minimal overlap between the two constituencies. So while it would stand to reason that while adding more content could justify a $1 per month increase to HBO Max subscribers, if discovery+ customers aren’t already interested in HBO Max, would a $9 price hike per month be worth that they had been getting for less than $7?
HBO Max
HBO Max es un servicio de transmisión de video por suscripción que brinda acceso a la biblioteca completa de HBO, junto con Max Originals exclusivos, y acceso a todas las películas de Warner Bros. en HBO Max poco después de que estén en los cines.