Discovery Plus no longer offers the option to save on the cost of a subscription with a military discount or a student discount. This change took place a couple of months ago, and around the time when other streaming changes were happening within the house of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Towards the end of May, HBO Max was rebranded as Max. While Max is still fundamentally the same service, the rebrand did result in Max subscribers gaining access to a significant portion of the Discovery Plus library. Even though Max still isn’t a full replacement for Discovery Plus, it likely now offers enough content from the Discovery family of brands to suit the needs of many homes.
Very soon after this change, Discovery Plus officially stopped offering both military and student discounts. According to Discovery Plus, the change took effect on June 1, 2023 for both discounts. As a result, it is no longer possible to sign up to the streaming service at a discounted military or student rate.
While many students likely signed up in the previous school year, it now looks like they have been (or are about to be) transitioned over to the standard plan, and at the normal, higher rate.
“Those with a current Student Subscription will receive the discounted monthly subscription to discovery+ (ad lite) for the remainder of their verified year At the end of your verified year, your Student Subscription will then automatically convert to a standard (non-student) monthly discovery+ (ad lite) subscription at the then-current subscription price (now, $4.99/mo.).”
Discovery+
According to Discovery Plus, any military members that had previously signed up to the military discount should continue to receive their discount.
“If you are currently on a Military discount, discovery+ will honor that subscription and it will not expire as long as you remain a current active-duty military, spouse of an active member, reservist or veteran of the United States or current active-duty military, reservist or veteran Canadian Armed Forces and/or there are no changes to discovery+ and the military subscription.”
Discovery+
While it remains unclear why exactly these discount were discontinued, the timing would suggest the decision was part of the wider Max and Discovery Plus changes that were happening at the same time.
Regardless of the reason, any military members or students now looking to watch Discovery Plus content will need to consider signing up to one of the two standard plan options. The ad-supported plan costs $4.99 a month and the ad-free subscription costs $6.99 a month.
Alternatively, there is always the option of subscribing to Max and seeing if the included catalog of Discovery family content is enough.
Considering Max also doesn’t offer a military or student discount, the cheapest Max plan is priced at $9.99 a month, and includes ads. Those wanting an ad-free experience will be looking at paying a minimum of $15.99 a month.
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