MGM+ Raises Monthly Subscription Price to $6.99; No Ad-Supported Tier Yet
The increase of $1 per month is a modest change, but one that fits with Amazon’s plans to increase streaming profits nonetheless.
Amazon has made a lot of changes to its streaming platforms in the past week. On Jan. 29, ads officially rolled out for all current Prime Video customers who chose not to upgrade to an ad-free plan for $2.99 per month extra. Over the weekend, MGM+’s turn for an overhaul came, as the streamer announced it was increasing its monthly subscription price to $6.99 per month, up one dollar from its current rate.
- New subscribers will see MGM+ price increase take effect immediately.
- For a limited time, new subscribers can sign up to MGM+ for a discounted price of $58.99 for the year.
- No ad-supported plan of MGM+ appears to be forthcoming at this time.
Why is MGM+ Raising Its Prices?
Costs of ad-free streaming are rising market-wide, and Amazon didn’t get to where it is as a company by leaving money on the table. Ad-free streaming plans bring in less revenue per user than ad-supported plans do, even when the subscription costs are lower, so if a streamer is going to stay ad-free and succeed in the goal of becoming profitable, it has to be priced accordingly.
New MGM+ subscribers will see the change take effect at once while existing MGM+ customers will see the change reflected in their next billing cycle unless they cancel first. The annual plan of MGM+ is also increasing in price; formerly $49.99 per year, the streamer is now providing a “limited-time” offer of $58.99 per year. That’s a savings of around $25 for the year over the monthly price, but being labeled a limited-time deal means the price of an annual plan to MGM+ will inevitably rise further.
Why Isn’t MGM+ Launching a Cheaper Ad-Supported Plan?
Prime Video started showing ads to all current subscribers who chose not to upgrade last week just days ahead of its conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss its fourth quarter 2023 earnings report. During that call, Amazon executives expressed a desire to bring more ads to all of the company’s streaming services.
That prompted The Streamable to predict that MGM+ would incorporate ads onto its existing tier sooner rather than later, and then to launch a higher-priced ad-free tier, following the same tactic that Prime Video used to introduce ads to its platform. It turns out, however, that we were only half right, at least for the time being; there has been no announcement of an ad-supported plan by MGM+, but the ad-free price is rising.
So why isn’t MGM+ launching an ad-supported plan? Without solid numbers from Amazon, it’s difficult to say for sure, but it’s reasonable to assume that the streamer simply doesn’t have a large enough subscriber base to make the changeover worthwhile. By raising prices by $1 for all existing customers, Amazon still gets to pull in additional revenue per user, but it doesn’t have to go to the expense of overhauling code and making the other technical changes needed to convert MGM+ to ad-supported streaming.
MGM+ offers Paramount-created movies like “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” as well as MGM productions such as “Creed III.” It also carries original series like the chilling thriller series “From,” “The Winter King” and much more.
MGM+
MGM+ is a video streaming service that features original TV shows like the Emmy-winner “Godfather of Harlem,” the romantic adventure “Billy the Kid,” the contemporary sci-fi horror thriller “FROM,” and dramas “Rogue Heroes” and “Belgravia.” The service also has a library of Hollywood movies. This same service was previously called EPIX NOW.