Warner Bros. Discovery raises prices of ad-free Max plans

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has become the latest media company to raise the price of its ad-free plans on its streaming service, lifting the price of Max to $16.99 from $15.99.

Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal reports more on the move and how consumers are reacting.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video transcript

Seems like our streaming bills are just more and more expensive.

Warner Brothers.

Discovery is the latest media company to raise the price of its ad free plans on its streaming service.

Max and consumers not thrilled.

Yahoo, finance senior reporter, Alexandra Canal has the details on this one.

Hey, Alex.

Hey, Brad.

Yes.

Unfortunately, for consumers, it's getting more and more expensive to watch your favorite shows.

Max Hiking, its ad free offerings by $1 a month.

So that means the monthly ad free plan, it's now going to cost 699 as opposed to the prior 1599.

And then the ultimate A free t this is a tier that allows for concurrent streams and four K options that's also going to increase by $1 to 2099 a month.

The A support plan though, that's going to remain the same at 999.

And this is something we've seen across the board is more companies are trying to lure people to their new at supported offerings and a push for not only profitability but also top line growth.

Now, whats interesting about the timing of all these hi is that Max is raising prices just ahead of the launch of the second season of House of The Dragon.

This is much anticipated.

A lot of consumers were frustrated about this.

But sources have told me that the timing here is very important.

They want to make sure they're raising prices at a point where they know consumers aren't going to flee and leave the platform.

We also recently saw Comcast Peacock announced price hikes.

Those price hikes are actually going to hit in July right before the Olympics.

So again, very strategic price there.

And Yahoo finance, we wanted to get a sense of how consumers were feeling about all the price hikes and all of their streaming services that they subscribe to.

So we asked them with all these recent changes.

How do you spend on streaming services today?

No surprise, the majority of them are cutting some out.

But I was interested to see that in second place.

Some people are just paying more and I think that speaks to the power of content and certain streamers just having that sticky content to keep consumers on the platform.

Next is opting for a tiers and then last is buying bundles and I wonder what this means for the future of some of those sports specific streaming bundles and some of those other bundled announcements that we have coming up.

Yeah, I mean, this is especially frustrating for me ahead of the Olympics where I mean, because it's in Paris this year, perhaps a little bit easier to watch than if it was in Tokyo.

Like we had, you know, in years past, had to really figure out the time differences and changes and when I could watch basketball.

So all these things considered, has the service changed so much so that it is worth the extra money.

Are there any incremental improvements that they're making to these services?

I think when it comes to how all of these services are pricing, it all comes down to content and they're going to raise prices if they're acquiring content that they think is worth it and they think consumers want.

So you have to remember that content is constantly changing on these platforms.

So that means the price is going to change as well.

So if you have something like the Olympics event coverage and then on top of that, you have maybe more repeat customers coming for those shows and series that you want sticking within the ecosystem a little longer that may provide some more value add for consumers.

Hence the price increases.

But we do know there's a ceiling on this.

We know there's a limit where consumers just don't wanna pay any longer.

And I wonder what that means when it comes to future consolidation and future price hikes down the line.

As long as I get the commentary from Leslie Jones on the Olympics, I'm just fine.

That's, that's what I need.

That's what all of us need.

I think we need to see Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg team up again.

Once again.

Yeah, thanks so much.

Appreciate it.