Listen, HBO fans, I have some bad news for you: You’re about to shell out more money to watch your favorite shows. Yes, streaming price hikes have hit again.
The transformed subscription levels are as follows:
HBO Max Basic with Ads
Monthly: +$1/month increase, now $10.99
Annually: +10$/year increase, now $109.99
HBO Max Standard
Monthly: +$1.50/month increase, now $18.49
Annual: +$15/year increase, now $184.99HBO Max Premium
Monthly: +$2/month increase, $22.99
Annual: +$20/year increase, now $229.99
New subscribers will see these price increases take effect immediately, while current subscribers will feel their wallets impacted on their next billing date within 30 days of being notified of the increases. Annual subscribers will not feel any pain until their subscription is renewed. The service had already increased its prices about a year ago.
When it comes to price gouging, streaming services have really been pushing it lately — and it often seems like they’re just seeing how far they can get away with it. Back in the halcyon days of streaming, you could watch a TV show, ad-free, for as little as $8 a month. Then came the price increases. Then came the commercials. Then came more price hikes, more ads, and so on, and now it seems like we may be in a vicious cycle that can only be stopped when streamers around the world stand up and take some kind of collective action.
The streaming service is currently called HBO Max. It used to be Max, and before that it was HBO Max, and before that it was HBO Go. There’s also been an HBO Now, but that’s a slightly separate thing. Despite all the idiotic and iterative branding efforts of its corporate overlords, HBO remains the greatest television producer in the history of the medium. The same company that brought us The Sopranos, Game of ThronesAnd Successionjust launched a new Tim Robinson show (it’s called The chair company), so I don’t care what you call it, as long as you keep doing it. But for God’s sake, folks, let’s moderate the prices.
