Technologies

HBO Max Is Raising Its Ad-Free Subscription Price by $1 a Month

As of now, any new signups will need to pay the higher price. If you’re already a subscriber, your bill will go up starting Feb. 11.

HBO Max is raising the price of its ad-free subscriptions in the US by $1 to $16 a month, joining a parade of subscription video services hiking prices lately.

HBO said Thursday that the higher price for new HBO Max ad-free subscriptions is effective immediately, so anyone signing up from now on will be paying more. Existing subscribers who are paying the old $15-a-month rate will see their charges go up in their next billing cycle on or after Feb. 11.

Over more than three years, Hollywood’s major entertainment companies (and some big tech ones too) have piled on with their own subscription streaming services, taking on the likes of Netflix by embracing streaming as the future of TV. These so-called streaming wars meant, one, that companies were plowing billions of dollars into their services, and, two, that competition for your subscription dollars intensified. Now companies across the field are raising prices to cope.

HBO Max’s hike is the latest after Disney Plus raised prices in December, Apple TV Plus and Hulu increased in October, and Netflix upped US prices early last year.

«This price increase of $1 will allow us to continue to invest in providing even more culture-defining programming and improving our customer experience for all users,» HBO said in a statement.

It’s the first time HBO Max has increased its monthly subscription price since it launched in May 2020. HBO Max also offers a cheaper, ad-supported tier of its service; the company didn’t specify any changes to the price of that HBO Max With Ads option.

HBO Max is in the midst of upheaval, after an ownership change last year. In April, HBO Max became the property of newly formed company Warner Bros. Discovery, a merger of cable network giant Discovery with WarnerMedia, which AT&T had bought for $85 billion less than four years prior.

Now with a mountain of debt and Discovery’s famously frugal CEO, David Zaslav, as its leader, HBO Max has been canceling a laundry list of shows and movies, including a nearly complete Batgirl film that reportedly cost $90 million. It’s also removing some shows, like Westworld, from HBO Max so that the programs can be licensed out to other services — and pull in fresh revenue as a result.

In addition, HBO Max will combine with Discovery Plus into a single service this year. The combo will put prestige fare like House of the Dragon next to basic-cable reality hits like 90-Day Fiancé on the service. But it also means subscribers will get a much bigger library with their memberships: Essentially, the combined service will be bulking up HBO Max with the addition of $7-a-month Discovery Plus, a prospect that was likely to effect pricing at some point.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, April 6

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 6.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword has my favorite Australian cartoon as an answer. If you’re a fan of Bingo, Bandit and Chilli, you’ll nail that answer. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Nibble : food :: ___ : drink
Answer: SIP

4A clue: Like a kid doodling in class, maybe
Answer: BORED

6A clue: Popular Disney+ show about a family of Australian cattle dogs
Answer: BLUEY

7A clue: Fill in, as a puzzle
Answer: SOLVE

8A clue: Perceive
Answer: SEE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Some first-chair performances in an orchestra
Answer: SOLOS

2D clue: «Go me!»
Answer: IRULE

3D clue: Loud chewing or talking during a movie, e.g.
Answer: PEEVE

4D clue: Ammo for a Red Ryder rifle
Answer: BBS

5D clue: Part of an Easter egg kit
Answer: DYE

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 6, #665

Find hints and answers for the New York Times’ Connections puzzle for Sunday, April 6.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle was a challenging one. The yellow and green categories were pretty easy, but I struggled with blue and purple. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: We’re not close.

Green group hint: Pay the bills.

Blue group hint: Don’t get a shock!

Purple group hint: Think 420.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Aloof.

Green group: Utilities.

Blue group: What an electrometer measures.

Purple group: ____ joint.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is aloof. The four answers are cool, distant, remote and removed.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is utilities. The four answers are cable, gas, trash and water.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is what an eletrometer measures. The four answers are charge, current, resistance and voltage.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ joint. The four answers are dovetail, hip, pizza and Spike Lee.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 6, #195

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 195, for Sunday, April 6.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Is it just me, or is Connections: Sports Edition getting tougher each week? Or am I getting dumber? Fight fans, you might do all right today, but there was one compound word in your category (green) that I literally have never heard before. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Get out of here.

Green group hint: It happens in the octagon.

Blue group hint: They call it football.

Purple group hint: Not on…