Subtrakr Weekly Roundup #45

Skydance closed its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery on 6 October and kept HBO Max and Paramount+ as separate brands. The company says the two will become one service over time, without a date, a name, or a price. HBO Max has said prices and bundles stay as they are for now.

Peacock is higher on every tier. Apple One Family and Premier rose in a dozen European countries. Nvidia raised the Shield TV Pro by $100. New York City's click-to-cancel rule is in effect, and two $20 AI plans include very different amounts of use.

Two streamers, one parent, no new price

The combined company took the Skydance name at the close. Days earlier, a video from Paramount CEO David Ellison ended on a slide of the brands treated as most valuable. HBO Max and Paramount+ both appeared next to the studio and network brands, a sign the company means to keep Paramount+ on sale.

Casey Bloys, expected to run the combined streaming operation, pointed to the HBO Max and Disney bundle as the model that has worked, and said a similar setup would make sense. Pre-close coverage treated a bundle as the near-term path.

After the close, Skydance said the products would improve and unify into one service over time. Paramount+ starts at $8.99 a month and HBO Max at $10.99. HBO Max said there is no price or bundle change for now, with room for new bundle options later. Keep both charges until an offer is on sale, then compare it with the two standalone prices and with how often you open each app.

Peacock is higher on every tier

NBCUniversal raised all three Peacock plans on 18 August, monthly and annual. Existing subscribers moved to the new rates on the first bill on or after 17 September. A new signup pays the new price.

Select is $8.99 a month, up $1, or $89.99 a year. It covers NBC and Bravo shows and leaves out sports, movies, and Peacock Originals. Premium is $12.99 a month, up $2, or $129.99 a year, with movies, originals, and live sports, plus ads. Premium Plus is $19.99 a month, up $3, or $199.99 a year, with ads off on most on-demand titles, downloads, and a live local NBC station.

Annual billing works out to about $7.50, $10.83, and $16.67 a month and saves about $18 to $40 against twelve monthly charges. Use the annual price for a year you will actually watch. Premier League matches and some NFL games are the clearest reason to pay for Premium or Premium Plus. Select fits someone who wants the NBC and Bravo shows and can skip the games and the originals.

Apple One costs more in twelve European countries

Apple raised Family in Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland. Premier rose only in Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland. Individual is unchanged. New subscribers pay now. Current subscribers see the new rate at the next renewal.

In Spain and Portugal the increase is 2 euros a month. Spain's Family plan is 27.95 euros and Premier is 36.95 euros. Portugal's Family plan is 23.95 euros and Premier is 32.95 euros. Elsewhere the rise is about 2 euros a month after local currency and tax. Family still includes 200GB of iCloud+, Apple TV, Apple Music, and Apple Arcade. Premier adds 2TB of storage, Apple Fitness+, and Apple News+.

In the US, Family and Premier are already $27.95 and $39.95. This is at least the third Apple One increase in 2026. If one person uses the bundle, compare it with Individual plus a separate storage plan before renewal.

A Shield TV Pro now costs $299.99

Nvidia raised the Shield TV Pro from $199.99 to $299.99. The cheaper model is retired, and the small tube had been out of stock for months, so the Pro is the only Shield left. Nvidia pointed to higher component costs, including memory. Google's TV Streamer is up $50 this year, and Apple TV 4K has risen as well.

The Pro launched in 2019 on the Tegra X1+ and still runs current streaming apps. AV1 decode sits outside that chip. Keep a working box. If you are buying one, set $299.99 next to the monthly apps you will open on it.

Cancellation in New York has to match signup

New York City's click-to-cancel rule took effect on 1 October for automatic renewals and continuous service. Cancellation has to use the same channel as signup, with steps as easy as enrollment. If the company takes signups or price-increase consent in several channels, each channel needs a cancel path. Online signup needs an online cancel. In-person signup still needs a site or an email. The business cannot block the request or stall it.

Before it collects consent or card details, it has to state the charge, the billing frequency, the cancellation deadline, and how a trial price changes. A retention discount is allowed when the terms stay reasonable and the way out stays open. Banks, some other financial firms, state-licensed alarm companies, and certain franchise services are exempt.

Fines start at $525 per violation, and the city can also seek restitution. File on the city's click-to-cancel page, or by mail or fax. You receive a complaint number, the agency reviews the file, and a mediator may contact both sides. Save cancellation attempts, receipts, and account messages before you submit.

Two $20 AI plans buy different amounts of work

After OpenAI halved the value of its $200 plan, SemiAnalysis compared consumer AI subscriptions. These plans are subsidized: a subscriber gets far more usage than the same money buys at API rates. The firm estimates Claude subscriptions use about 42 percent of Anthropic's inference compute and produce about 10 percent of revenue.

On API-equivalent value for GPT-6.1 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5, Claude comes out about five times ahead. In tokens, the $20 Claude Pro plan is about 2.9 billion a month, against about 1 billion on the $20 ChatGPT plan. Models spend different amounts of tokens on the same task, so test a normal week against the cap you hit. At API rates, a task runs about $0.72 on GPT-6.1 Sol and about $5.98 on Claude Opus 5.5. The subsidy sits on personal plans. A July McKinsey report found 93 percent of enterprises had gone over their AI budgets.

What to record this week

Peacock is $8.99, $12.99, and $19.99 a month, or $89.99, $129.99, and $199.99 a year. Check the next Apple One Family or Premier renewal in the countries above, including the extra 2 euros in Spain and Portugal. A new Shield TV Pro is $299.99.

Keep HBO Max and Paramount+ as two charges until a bundle or a single plan is for sale, then compare that price with both bills and with actual use. In New York City, an online signup that forces a phone cancellation can be reported, and a saved attempt strengthens the file. For AI, record the plan, the renewal, and the limit you hit. The two $20 plans run out at different speeds.

Sources

• Post-Merger Skydance Keeping Both HBO Max & Paramount+ Streaming Brands
• Your Monthly Streaming Bill Could Change as Skydance Absorbs Paramount and HBO
• What will happen to Paramount+ and HBO Max under the new Skydance?
• Peacock is increasing their price, here's whether it's worth it to subscribe again
• Apple One subscribers in Europe hit with a price increase
• Apple One just became more expensive in a dozen countries
• Nvidia follows Google and Apple to quietly hike Shield TV Pro price by a massive $100
• NYC Click-to-Cancel Rule Takes Effect: What Changes
• Anthropic Claude subscription plan provides more value than OpenAI's, study says