HBO Max Tries To Offset Its Purge Of Dozens Of Titles With A Price Cut

It seems like after yesterday's gutting of animated programming offered on HBO Max, the streamer is trying to smooth things over with their outraged subscriber base by announcing a new discounted rate like a parent promising a Happy Meal to their rightfully frustrated child. New customers now have the option to sign up for a prepaid annual subscription with a 30% slash on the original price, dropping the no-ads plan to $104.99 and the ad-supported plan to $69.99. The discount is only good for the first year after signing up, which seems acceptable since they've been slowly purging an unprecedented number of titles, including HBO Max originals.

I'm trying not to be a cynic, but the timing of this announcement is suspect. Not only does it come on the heels of the animation bloodbath, but it's also coming right before the launch of "House of the Dragon." It's no secret that "Game of Thrones" is the most popular HBO series in history, and this offering of a discounted annual fee seems to be their attempt to lure in subscribers for a longer haul who would otherwise only intend on activating their subscription whenever there's a new season.

This could also be their way of acknowledging that there is little benefit to adding discovery+ programming to HBO Max and that they are desperately trying to incentivize viewers who are hesitant on joining their soon-to-be combined platform. We already know they canned "Batgirl" to (allegedly) write the film off as a loss on their taxes, so it's not like people are lining up to throw their hard-earned dollars at a platform that now cannot be trusted to not scrap highly-anticipated releases in the name of corporate tax write-offs.