HBO Max price hikes
Fresh off the rebrand from Max earlier this summer, the cost of all HBO Max subscription plans are increasing. The Basic with Ads plan is up $1/month to $10.99; the Standard plan goes up $1.50/month to $18.49; and the Premium tier rises $2/month to $22.99. New subscribers will get hit immediately with the new rates, while existing subscribers will be charged at their next billing date. This is the second price increase for HBO Max over the last 18 months. The price of the ad-free tier went up in June 2024, while this is the first price increase for the HBO Max ad-supported tier since its inception in May 2021.
The Circana Take:
- Price hikes continue across streaming. The greater price spread between ad-supported and ad-free is likely to drive more consumers to trade-down. This increases the important of driving stronger ARM on the lower cost plan tiers.
- With no end in sight for rising prices, value for the money becomes increasingly more important to avoid churn.
CNN will debut a new All Access subscription tier
CNN announced that it will launch a new streaming subscription tier on October 28th called All Access. The new tier will give subscribers one centralized location for all CNN content, including live and on-demand video programming at a cost of $6.99/month or $41.99/year for the first year. Subscribers will have access to CNN’s live U.S. and International programming, CNN Originals library consisting of 1,000+ hours of content and the latest CNN Original Series and Films. This new tier is in addition to the Basic tier that launched earlier this month. The Basic tier gives users unlimited access to CNN.com, CNN app articles and subscriber-only content. Current Pay TV subscribers will be able to log in and access the new streaming product at no additional cost but will need to subscribe to the Basic tier to read unlimited CNN articles.
The Circana Take:
- This new subscription tier could help spark CNN, which has been battling for ratings the past few years. However, it remains to be seen how many subscribers are willing to spend more money on another service given the magnitude of free news options available.