Warner Bros Discovery Inc. is raising HBO Max’s ad-free subscription fee in the United States for the first time since the streaming service was launched in 2020, the TV network said on Thursday, sending its shares down 3 percent.
Prices for the platform, currently streaming shows such as “The White Lotus” and “House of the Dragon,” will rise by $1 to $15.99 plus taxes a month for U.S. subscribers.
HBO Max, which also has an ad-supported tier, faces pressure from slowing user growth and tight competition from larger rivals Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co.’s Disney+. Netflix and Disney had also raised prices for some of their streaming services last year.
Warner Bros Discovery, formed last year by the merger of AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia unit and Discovery Inc., is pushing for internal changes including plans to combine HBO Max and Discovery+.
The media company last month said it expected costs related to content write-offs to rise by $1 billion to as much as $3.5 billion.
It also made both HBO Max and Discovery+ available on Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video platform in select markets.
