It was sung and now it is confirmed: once the merger of HBO Max and Discovery + is completed, the resulting service will increase its price. How much it will do has not been anticipated, but the financial director of Warner Bros. Discovery, Gunnar Wiedenfels, considers that it costs less than it should and that there is room for the rise.
It should be noted in this regard, that of the price increase, that neither the HBO Max subscription nor Discovery + cost the same here in Spain as in the United States, although the catalog is not equivalent either. Thus, the standard HBO Max plan in the United States costs $14.99 per month, while Discovery+ is reduced to $6.99 per month.
In Spain the subscription price of HBO Max is 8.99 euros per month and that of Discovery + is 3.99 euros per month, although in both cases it is possible to opt for an annual payment plan with a more or less attractive discount: HBO Max would stay at 69.99 euros per year and Discovery + at 35.99 euros per year. What will happen next is the question.
Will it be a gross sum? That would leave a price for the subscription here in Spain of practically 13 euros per month, which in the United States would grow to almost 22 dollars per month. This is the account of the old woman whose resemblance to reality will be mere coincidence, but if Wiedenfels is clear about something, it is that “they have room to increase prices, given the strength of the content in the services.”
In both cases, both HBO Max and Discovery+ offer cheaper plans in the United States that include advertising and everything seems to indicate that they will export them to the single service resulting from the merger, there and in the rest of the world. Be that as it may, it still needs to happen and it will do so first across the pond. So, we will be warned of what happens.
The merger will materialize in the middle of next year in the United States and the following will be extended to the rest of the territories in which the service operates, including Spain. Which raises another question: will it all be done under the HBO Max roof or under a new one? And, if the latter happens, will HBO Max’s introductory offer be honored?
Regardless of how the story turns out, the truth is that even while the growth of the video on demand sector is slowing, the prices of the different platforms are increasing: from the rises and cuts of Netflix to those of Disney + or Amazon Prime Video , the bubble of streaming is getting closer to exploding.
