- HBO Max is raising the price of its ad-supported plan by $1, and costs associated with its premium plans are increasing as well.
- Annual plans will now start at $110 for HBO Max with Ads and $186 for HBO Max without commercials.
- The price hike comes as HBO Max is set to lose a live CNN feed next month and TNT Sports next year.
Warner Bros Discovery is raising subscription prices for HBO Max, marking the second time in less than two years that the company has increased rates for its flagship streaming service.
Moving forward, HBO Max will cost $11 per month with ads or $18.50 for a version that offers commercial-free streaming of on-demand shows and movies. A premium version of HBO Max will cost $23 per month; that plan unlocks additional simultaneous streams and other features like Dolby Atmos and 4K video support.
The prices of all HBO Max annual plans is also going up: $110 per year for HBO Max with ads, $186 per year for HBO Max without commercials and $230 per year for the premium version of the service.
The new price takes effect immediately for new customers, and will be reflected on the bills of existing members when their monthly or annual subscriptions renew, WBD said.
WBD last raised prices for ad-free HBO Max subscriptions in June 2024. The company also reverted the service’s name from “Max” back to HBO Max in July, two years after its original rebrand. The return to the HBO name reflects a renewed focus on leveraging the network’s prestige and library to compete in an increasingly crowded streaming market.
Earlier this year, WBD CEO David Zaslav warned that more price increases were coming to HBO Max because the company felt the streaming service was undervalued at its current price points.
“The fact that this is quality — and that’s true across our company, motion picture, TV production and streaming quality — we all we think that gives us a chance to raise prices,” Zaslav remarked during an industry conference in San Francisco.
The price increase comes as WBD is preparing to spin out its cable networks business into a separate company, one that will be called Discovery Communications, as it prepares to retain its more-lucrative film and streaming businesses.
As part of the spin-off, HBO Max is set to lose live games from TNT Sports, since TNT will no longer fall under common ownership with HBO. Next month, HBO Max is also ending a live feed of CNN programming after the cable network decided to launch its own subscription service. Both moves make future price adjustments harder to justify, since streaming customers are losing access to programming that could be used to support slight cost adjustments.
