New US prices take effect

Skydance has raised the monthly prices of Discovery+ for US customers. According to Variety and Deadline, the ad-supported plan rises by $1 to $6.99 a month, and the ad-free plan goes up by $2 to $11.99. Ars Technica and Engadget give the rounded figures of $7 and $12. The higher rates applied immediately to new subscribers from Tuesday, 13 October. Existing subscribers get 30 days' notice, and their bills reflect the new prices on or after 12 November. El Periódico counts this as the second increase since January 2025.

Timing next to the merger

The increase arrived about a week after Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery completed their merger into Skydance. Deadline reports that the combined company carries nearly $80 billion in debt. A Skydance spokesperson told Ars Technica that the pricing changes had been in the works before the merger and were not a response to it. Variety says the increase was likely planned ahead of the deal. Discovery+ had previously sat inside Warner Bros. Discovery's direct-to-consumer division, and Ars Technica and The Verge both date its last price rise to January 2025. Engadget and Variety both describe the combined company as Skydance.

Consolidation and cost cuts

Skydance has said it will combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into a single service over time, and chairman and CEO David Ellison has described that plan, according to Variety. It is unclear whether Discovery+ will remain standalone. Current prices for the other two services are $10.99 to $22.99 a month for HBO Max and $8.99 to $13.99 for Paramount+, according to El Periódico. The company has set a target of more than $6 billion in cost savings over three years, El Periódico reports, alongside back-end efficiencies, real estate sales and layoffs, per Deadline. Deadline expects higher streaming rates to follow, in keeping with inflation across the media sector.

What Discovery+ offers

Discovery+ carries programming from HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Discovery, Animal Planet and Magnolia Network, according to Variety. Recent and popular series on the platform include 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way, Sister Wives, Ghost Adventures and Evil Lives Here. Some of its shows, including 90 Day Fiancé, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and Deadliest Catch, also appear on HBO Max, per The Verge. Deadline says the service does not commission originals and has been profitable for most of its existence. Ars Technica notes that WBD said in 2022 that Discovery+ had 24 million subscribers, and no newer subscriber figure has been published.

What happens next

Existing subscribers will see the higher amounts on their bills from 12 November. Skydance has not said when the Paramount+ and HBO Max combination will happen, how much the combined subscription would cost, or what role Discovery+ would play in that structure, according to El Periódico.