Warner Bros. Discovery Increases Price of Discovery+'s Ad-Free Tier

Discovery+ will now cost $8.99 for its ad-free version.

By Liam Crowley

The streaming era is entering a paradigm shift. Following the Writers Guild of America's resolution with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Screen Actors Guild's ongoing negotiations with the studios, streaming services are going to have to evolve with the times. In order to accommodate refined residuals for writers, and likely actors as well depending on their pending agreement with AMPTP, streamers will need to either whittle down the amount of content they produce or increase subscription costs for the consumer. Netflix is already reportedly planning on the latter, and another streaming giant enforced it today.

Discovery+ Increases Ad-Free Tier Costs

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(Photo: WBD)

Warner Bros. Discovery has raised the price of one of its streamer's most popular tiers.

As shared in a press release, Discovery+'s ad-free tier has increased from $6.99 to $8.99 per month. The ad-lite tier remains unchanged, still costing consumers $4.99 per month. Additionally, Canada's Discovery+ ad-free tier follows suit by going from $6.99 CAD to $8.99 CAD, and its ad-lite tier will jump slightly from $4.99 CAD to $5.99 CAD. 

Discovery+ noted that this is the "first time since launching in January 2021" that it has increased prices in these markets.

"This will allow us to continue to provide can't miss-stories in the food, home, relationships, true crime, paranormal genres – plus so much more," the press release concluded.

Warner Bros. Discovery's Massive Strike Losses

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(Photo: WBD, GETTY)

As shared in its 2023 adjusted earnings, Warner Bros. Discovery is expecting to lose upwards of $500 million as a result of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

"While WBD is hopeful that these strikes will be resolved soon, it cannot predict when the strikes will ultimately end," WBD said in its filing on September 5th. "With both guilds still on strike today, the company now assumes the financial impact to WBD of these strikes will persist through the end of 2023. The company will continue to update its assumptions based on the timing and any additional impacts of the eventual resolution of the strikes."

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One of its biggest costs comes in the form of Dune: Part Two. WBD delayed the blockbuster sequel from November to March, leaving the studio without what was expected to be one of 2023's most profitable projects.

"We're a content company. We're a storytelling company. And we need to do everything we can to get people back to work," WBD CEO David Zaslav said in September. "People need to be fairly compensated."

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