With Warner Bros Discovery’s eventful corporate background cutting spending and trying to convince Wall Street of its strategy, the company is offering both new and existing subscribers limited-time discounts on the streaming service HBO Max.
Anyone who signs up for a year-round plan by October 30 pays $104.99 for the ad-free tier and $69.99 for the ad-supported, a savings of 30% compared to the usual prices of $149.99 and 99 $.99. Compared to the monthly pricing, which is always higher than the annual rate, the savings reach 42%. The deal is for the first year only and must be ordered through the HBO Max website or through distribution partners Roku, Google Play, Apple, and Amazon.
The lower prices align with the long-awaited launch of Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon, which debuts this week.
Even before the completion of their merger last April, WBD execs said they plan to merge HBO Max with Discovery+ into a single offering by next year. The company is understood to be considering a name change and rebranding of the two-year-old HBO Max as well.
To gain more subscribers, HBO Max is also saying goodbye to about three dozen titles, including the Harry Potter films and about 20 originals.
Nielsen recently began measuring HBO Max on a weekly basis. It charted with Friends, an enduringly popular acquired series, as well as the film The Bob’s Burgers. Unlike 2021, when HBO Max showed all 17 Warner Bros film releases on the same day they hit theaters, the company has adopted a more conventional Windows strategy for films. Titles like The Batman only transitioned to streaming after about six weeks in theaters. Elvis, which has grossed more than $142 million domestically since its June 24 release, has already surpassed that schedule, and the company has yet to confirm its streaming destiny on HBO Max.