HBO Max hikes subscription price as it deletes content

AppleInsider

The price of ad-free HBO Max is increasing starting on January 12, happening after a year of the service removing content from the service.

HBO Max price increase in 2023

Following price increases by Apple TV+, Netflix, and other companies, Warner Bros. is hiking the price of HBO Max. The new subscription will cost $15.99 per month, an extra dollar from the old price, according to a report on Thursday.

"Effective today, Thursday, January 12, the price of a new HBO Max ad-free monthly subscription in the U.S. will increase from $14.99 to $15.99 plus applicable taxes," the team said. "Existing subscribers who are currently paying $14.99/month will see their monthly rate increase to $15.99 effective their next billing cycle on or after Saturday, February 11, 2023."

While the increase isn't drastic, HBO Max has also been removing content since 2021, the year it also killed its integration with Apple TV Channels. Since August 2021, the service has removed around 81 titles, reportedly so that Warner Bros. could take tax breaks and write-offs.

HBO Max plans a merger with Discovery+, as reported in August 2022. The new service will combine the two and may add a free, ad-supported version of the unnamed streaming platform.

Competitors have done the same. For example, Netflix raised its prices in January 2022, and Apple did the same for Apple TV+ in October, along with its other subscription services.

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DAalseth

CEO: So customers subscribe to our service for the content and because it’s a reasonable price.
Aide: Yes sir.
CEO: So how about we delete a bunch of the content and raise the price, that’ll increase our profits, right?
Aide: You are a genius sir.

lkrupp

DAalseth said:

CEO: So customers subscribe to our service for the content and because it’s a reasonable price.
Aide: Yes sir.
CEO: So how about we delete a bunch of the content and raise the price, that’ll increase our profits, right?
Aide: You are a genius sir.

Everything goes up, not down. You can’t buy a five pound bag of sugar at the grocery store these days, the bag is only four pounds now and the price still went up. Making snarky comments does nothing to correct that. Companies know they need a certain profit margin in order to keep the lights on and they will do what they have to to keep the lights on, end of story. As a customer you have absolutely no right to the price you find acceptable. Your only weapon is your power to not pay the price and go without the product. HBO is not a human right, not a life sustaining necessity, it’s entertainment, period. 

Sorry to go batshit crazy but HBO and the rest of them will or will not reap what they sow. All I know right now is that cord cutting is turning out not to be the price savior it was touted to be. I still have a cable subscription that includes HBO and Showtime and can stream using the HBO Max and Showtime apps at no additional charge.

charlesn

Timing of this seems odd. The new-ish owners of HBO, a company called Warner Brothers Discovery, are launching a new streaming platform this spring, widely rumored to be called Max, which will put the content from HBO, Discovery+ and Warner Brothers (DC comics titles, etc) under one roof, sort of the way Disney+ has merged their various brands, channels and franchises. So why jack up HBO Max by a buck now when it will be part of a new service in a few months, presumably with a different pricing structure. Maybe it will be a la carte pricing, and you can continue to just subscribe to HBO? But strange to have a service that doesn't give you everything it offers for one price. 

DAalseth

lkrupp said:

DAalseth said:

CEO: So customers subscribe to our service for the content and because it’s a reasonable price.
Aide: Yes sir.
CEO: So how about we delete a bunch of the content and raise the price, that’ll increase our profits, right?
Aide: You are a genius sir.

Everything goes up, not down. You can’t buy a five pound bag of sugar at the grocery store these days, the bag is only four pounds now and the price still went up. Making snarky comments does nothing to correct that. Companies know they need a certain profit margin in order to keep the lights on and they will do what they have to to keep the lights on, end of story. As a customer you have absolutely no right to the price you find acceptable. Your only weapon is your power to not pay the price and go without the product. HBO is not a human right, not a life sustaining necessity, it’s entertainment, period. 

Sorry to go batshit crazy but HBO and the rest of them will or will not reap what they sow. All I know right now is that cord cutting is turning out not to be the price savior it was touted to be. I still have a cable subscription that includes HBO and Showtime and can stream using the HBO Max and Showtime apps at no additional charge.

No making snarky comments won’t fix it. But the point of satire is to point out the fools in powerful positions. I think they will reap what they sow. A lot of the cuts, even actual deletions of old classic programs for tax reasons will come back to haunt them. They may gain a bit of a tax advantage for the moment by taking a write off, but down the road they will look around and realize they could have made a lot of money by reissuing these old programs, that literally will not cost them a penny to store. They would have made a lot more money than they will in the short run by scrapping them. The BBC and other old networks have discovered that, look at the millions they bring in by reselling things like Eastenders, and Dr. Who, and Last of the Summer Wine from forty, fifty, even sixty years ago. That’s free money they are throwing away in the pursuit of a one quarter bounce from a tax write off. But then the people running them at the moment are 20th century MBAs who look to their own golden parachutes, and bonuses and don’t give a damn about what’s good for the company or society long term.  
It’s called being penny-wise and pound foolish.
And eventually the people who inherit these companies will wonder why the hell they made these decisions.
That’s what my snarky comments were calling out. 

tenthousandthings

HBO has an annual price, I wonder if that has gone up too. After decades of having HBO, through cable and lately via streaming, I canceled it this month. The programming choices, especially removing content so they don’t have to pay creators and their estates. The one that really broke the back for me was removing Beforeigners. WTF. I’ll probably get the annual when we come back, maybe do every other year.

hmlongco

lkrupp said: Companies know they need a certain profit margin in order to keep the lights on and they will do what they have to to keep the lights on, end of story. As a customer you have absolutely no right to the price you find acceptable. Your only weapon is your power to not pay the price and go without the product. HBO is not a human right, not a life sustaining necessity, it’s entertainment, period. 

Keeping the lights on? As opposed to record quarters of profitability? Too many companies are gouging their customers not because "they're keeping the lights on", but because they think they can get away with it just because someone else is doing it.

And maybe they can. Or, maybe, they'll start losing subscribers to a once stellar property and sit around the conference table scratching their heads and wondering why.

chadbag

hmlongco said:

lkrupp said: Companies know they need a certain profit margin in order to keep the lights on and they will do what they have to to keep the lights on, end of story. As a customer you have absolutely no right to the price you find acceptable. Your only weapon is your power to not pay the price and go without the product. HBO is not a human right, not a life sustaining necessity, it’s entertainment, period. 

Keeping the lights on? As opposed to record quarters of profitability? Too many companies are gouging their customers not because "they're keeping the lights on", but because they think they can get away with it just because someone else is doing it.

And maybe they can. Or, maybe, they'll start losing subscribers to a once stellar property and sit around the conference table scratching their heads and wondering why.

Not sure what “gouging”‘your customer is.  There is nothing essential about HBO (not like water or food or anything).  They set the price where they want it and you can choose to subscribe or not.  There is no gouging. You have a choice.  

Personally I’m glad my dad “broke” the TV when I was a kid by taking out a tube.  I got out of the habit of watching all the time and still don’t care to watch.  We have Netflix because of T-Mobile and we had Disney+ for a year but no more.  No need.  Life is better without compulsive content consumption. 

AppleZulu

charlesn said:

Timing of this seems odd. The new-ish owners of HBO, a company called Warner Brothers Discovery, are launching a new streaming platform this spring, widely rumored to be called Max, which will put the content from HBO, Discovery+ and Warner Brothers (DC comics titles, etc) under one roof, sort of the way Disney+ has merged their various brands, channels and franchises. So why jack up HBO Max by a buck now when it will be part of a new service in a few months, presumably with a different pricing structure. Maybe it will be a la carte pricing, and you can continue to just subscribe to HBO? But strange to have a service that doesn't give you everything it offers for one price. 

Perhaps they’re aligning prices for whatever’s coming. One scenario could be that the new HBO price is what the new ‘combo’ HBO+Discovery+WB subscription will cost. If the price hike doesn’t come at the same time as the addition of Discovery+WB content, fewer people will cancel on the basis that they don’t want to pay extra for content they didn’t ask for. Some might see through the claim that will be made at that time that the new combo is the same price as the old HBO alone, but probably fewer than if the changes happen at the same time. 

danox

charlesn said:

Timing of this seems odd. The new-ish owners of HBO, a company called Warner Brothers Discovery, are launching a new streaming platform this spring, widely rumored to be called Max, which will put the content from HBO, Discovery+ and Warner Brothers (DC comics titles, etc) under one roof, sort of the way Disney+ has merged their various brands, channels and franchises. So why jack up HBO Max by a buck now when it will be part of a new service in a few months, presumably with a different pricing structure. Maybe it will be a la carte pricing, and you can continue to just subscribe to HBO? But strange to have a service that doesn't give you everything it offers for one price. 

A new owner? You mean another low margin content company was bought out by another sucker in Hollywood again? Since there are so few good programs made four out of 20?, buying Blu-ray and DVDs over time may be a more cost-effective solution to see your favorite programs particularly if family and friends who also buy a few of the better programs (particularly series), and if you don’t need to see the programs right away.

FileMakerFeller

danox said:

charlesn said:

Timing of this seems odd. The new-ish owners of HBO, a company called Warner Brothers Discovery, are launching a new streaming platform this spring, widely rumored to be called Max, which will put the content from HBO, Discovery+ and Warner Brothers (DC comics titles, etc) under one roof, sort of the way Disney+ has merged their various brands, channels and franchises. So why jack up HBO Max by a buck now when it will be part of a new service in a few months, presumably with a different pricing structure. Maybe it will be a la carte pricing, and you can continue to just subscribe to HBO? But strange to have a service that doesn't give you everything it offers for one price. 

A new owner? You mean another low margin content company was bought out by another sucker in Hollywood again? Since there are so few good programs made four out of 20?, buying Blu-ray and DVDs over time may be a more cost-effective solution to see your favorite programs particularly if family and friends who also buy a few of the better programs (particularly series), and if you don’t need to see the programs right away.

With the added benefit of the rights not being adjusted by some update to the terms and conditions of your streaming service, or the expiry of a contract between two content owners.