Breaking: HBO Max, discovery+ Combined Service to Maintain HBO Max Pricing; Adds $19.99 Ultimate Plan with Enhanced Features
It looks like current HBO Max subscribers are going to get a whole lot more content without having to pay any extra money. On Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled details about its soon-to-be merged streaming service Max which will combine the HBO Max library with most of the titles from discovery+. One of the key pieces of information announced by WBD CEO David Zaslav is that the new service will keep the same price as HBO Max.
The streamer will cost $15.99 per month for the ad-free option and $9.99 monthly for ad-supported. This was first reported last month, along with the possibility that Max could include a $20 pricing plan for higher video quality and other features. WBD did make that new tier official at Wednesday’s presentation, introducing the Max Ultimate Plan, which will include run $19.99. This option will allow users to up to 100 downloads and four concurrent streams all with 4K/HDR with Dolby Atmos quality.
This pricing structure makes sense for WBD as it tries to maintain and grow its streaming subscriber base. At the end of 2022, the media conglomerate reported having 96.1 million streaming customers globally, with 54.6 million in the United States and Canada. While the company stopped providing subscriber totals for the individual streamers following the first quarter after Discovery officially acquired WarnerMedia, however, last summer, WBD announced that there were only 4 million customers who subscribed to both HBO Max and discovery+.
While there would seem to be very little interest in the combined service, WBD is hoping that by housing the disparate content on a single service, viewers will begin to see Max as an invaluable platform that has both the buzzy, prestige content of HBO and the relaxing, comforting content of Discovery, HGTV, Food Network, and the rest of the company’s primarily unscripted cable channels. However, to keep customers interested enough to begin engaging with the content outside of their normal interests, WBD has to make sure they are still subscribed. Therefore, if the company were to dramatically up the price for HBO Max customers, it would run the risk of them unsubscribing because they didn’t see the additional content as being worth the extra expense; therefore, keeping the same pricing structure (at least for now) is a smart strategic decision.
Similarly, WBD announced that discovery+ will remain as its own standalone service, as was originally reported in February. The lean-back lifestyle streamer will also keep its current pricing plans — $4.99 per month for ad-supported, $6.99 for ad-free. While discovery+ will not be gaining any extra content from the HBO side of the company’s streaming operations, there will be certain titles that remain exclusive to the service and will not be available on Max, increasing the value proposition for the platform. Had WBD attempted to force discovery+ customers who were not interested in HBO content to go from $4.99 or $6.99 to $9.99 or $15.99 respectively, such a dramatic price increase could have also had significant repercussions on subscriber churn.
Therefore, WBD has opted to maintain the status quo on its streaming pricing for the time being, even if it is restructuring how and where it is delivering the content in some cases. While Zaslav and his team had a tumultuous 2022, if the launch of Max helps make Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming operations more indispensable to a wider array of customers, 2023 could end up being the beginning of a new era for the company.
Max
Max is a subscription video streaming service that gives access to the full HBO library, along with exclusive Max Originals. There are hubs for content from TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, TCM, Cartoon Network, Travel Channel, ID, and more. Watch hit series like “The Last of Us,” “House of the Dragon,” “Succession,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and more. Thanks to the B/R Sports add-on, users can watch NBA, MLB, NHL, March Madness, and NASCAR events.
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