Warner Bros. Discovery is shaking things up with its first price hike for Discovery+ since its launch in the U.S. earlier this year. Starting today, the ad-free tier in the U.S. will increase to $8.99 a month, while the tier with advertising will remain at $4.99. In Canada, the ad-free rate will rise to $8.99 Canadian and the ad tier will increase to $5.99. Existing subscribers will see the change in their next billing cycle on or after November 2.
While Warner Bros. Discovery has been focused on promoting its rebranded and expanded Max flagship, which now includes a variety of Discovery+ programming, it has chosen to keep Discovery+ as a stand-alone service. The ad-free version of Max is priced at $15.99 a month in the U.S., while the ad-supported subscription costs $9.99. After the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery in April 2022, there were talks of combining HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single service. However, the option to subscribe only to Discovery+ was preserved due to resistance to the higher price point of HBO Max.
In its most recent quarterly results, Warner Bros. Discovery reported a loss of 1.8 million subscribers, largely attributed to the Max rebrand. The company now has a total of 95.8 million subscribers across all services. Since the merger, subscriber numbers have been reported as a combined figure. In the first quarter of 2022, Discovery+ had 24 million subscribers.
Streaming price hikes have become more common as new players enter the market and face economic challenges. Ad-free plans tend to see the biggest increases in price, as cheaper ad-supported tiers become a strategic focus. Netflix, the long-time leader in the sector, has been able to maintain its pricing power, prompting competitors to follow suit. According to The Wall Street Journal, Netflix is considering another price increase once the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved, although the details of the hike and timing are unknown. Currently, Netflix’s most popular ad-free plan is priced at $15.49 a month in the U.S.
