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, sending its shares down
3%.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+. Netflix and Disney had 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 WarnerMedia unit and Discovery Inc, is pushing
for internal changes including plans to 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.
(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)