Jan 12 (Reuters) - Warner Bros Discovery Inc is raising HBO Max's ad-free subscription fee in the United States for the first time since the streaming service was launched in 2020, the TV network said on Thursday.
Prices for the platform, currently streaming shows such as "The White Lotus" and "House of the Dragon", will rise by $1 to $15.99 plus taxes a month for U.S. subscribers.
HBO Max, which also has an ad-supported tier, faces pressure from slowing user growth and tight competition from larger rivals Netflix Inc and Walt Disney Co's Disney+.NetflixandDisneyhad also raised prices for some of their streaming services last year.
Warner Bros Discovery, formed last year by the merger of AT&T Inc's(T.N)WarnerMedia unit and Discovery Inc, is pushing for internal changes includingplansto combine HBO Max and Discovery+.
The media company last month said it expected costs related to content write-offs to rise by $1 billion to as much as $3.5 billion.
It also made both HBO Max and Discovery+ available on Amazon.com Inc's Prime Video platform in select markets.