Another week, another price rise. The days when cutting the cord meant cutting costs are all gone, with the prices of the best streaming services and the best cable TV alternatives soaring. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is the latest criminal to raise the cost of Max's ad-free tier just before the "House of the Dragon" Season 2 premiere 16.

Max's price increase plan was revealed last month and will come into force today (6/4). In the future, Max's ad-free tier in the US will look like this: Currently it costs 16.99 per month instead of plan15.99, but an increase of 2-20 per year will be$149.99 toま1 169.99. 

The cost of Max's Ultimate tier is also rising, including ad-free streaming, 4K, HDR, Dolby Atmos, and the option to stream on up to 4 devices simultaneously. Ultimate tier will have a monthly increase1 increase, rising to per20.99 per month, and an annual cost increase10 increase to$209.99. On the other hand, the price of Max's lowest ad support tier will remain the same at 9 9.99 per month or 99.99 per year. 

While these new prices are in effect immediately for new subscribers, there is a bit of wiggle room for current Max subscribers. "Existing subscribers will be notified 30 days before the plan renewal and we will see that prices will rise from the next billing cycle after Thursday 2024/7/4," Max said in a press release. "The current annual subscribers will not see an increase until the update."

Max is far from the only streaming service that will raise prices. On May 4, Peacock confirmed that both ad-free and ad-supported plans will addド7 to月2 a month from May. The annual subscription fee for the 2 plans also rises to880 andン140 per year at the same time, respectively. After introducing the ad support plan in 2022, Netflix dropped the基本9.99 basic subscription tier for new subscribers last year. Now, new customers will have to fork over 15.49 or more per month for their equivalent, standard plans. The popular streamer also raised the price of the premium plan from Premium3, from 19.99 to 2 22.99. 

According to a Bloomberg report, Max's latest price increase is one of several ways WBD is trying to save money and achieve certain financial goals in the coming years One of WBD's financial goals is to get収益1 billion in revenue from Max and the Discovery+ streaming app for the next 10 years. The company is also partnering with Disney to debut the new Disney Plus, Hulu and Max streaming bundle later this summer. However, it is unclear how much this bundle will actually save customers, as the pricing information has not yet been revealed. 

In the meantime, these price increases just keep coming — and even with the increased clip, it's sad to say. In 2023, the first price of Max rose since its first launch in 2020, and the price of ad-free tier jumped fromま14.99 per month toま15.99 per month. Well, here we are, barely a year later, and WBD has already bumped it up again. 

It shows that the days when streaming was an affordable alternative to cable TV are gone. Currently, streaming services are so fragmented that you need countless (and increasingly expensive) subscriptions to watch all your favorite movies and shows. I don't get wrong, I'm not cutting the code anytime soon, but my monthly maximum subscription at this rate is justified