Natalie Jarvey for The Hollywood Reporter:
During a Tuesday afternoon presentation at Stage 21 on Warner Bros. Studios’ historic Burbank lot, the company [WarnerMedia] that owns the storied Hollywood studio as well as television networks HBO, TBS/TNT and CNN revealed that forthcoming streaming service HBO Max will bow in May 2020 and cost $15 per month, the same price as HBO but with significantly more TV shows and movies.
HBO Max will be filled with 10,000 hours of programming from across the media conglomerate’s divisions including TV hits like Friends, Big Bang Theory and South Park, Warner Bros. films like The Joker, the full HBO catalog and originals like previously announced Ansel Elgort drama Tokyo Vice, a Grease spinoff and a Gossip Girl sequel.
The competition for subscribers will be fierce. More than 158 million people worldwide already subscribe to Netflix and 28 million people in the U.S. pay for Hulu. Now, over the next six months, services from Apple, Disney and NBCU will also hit the market, testing just how much consumers will be willing to spend for new streaming services.
Even with a deep bench of new and classic programming, HBO Max’s price makes it one of the more expensive streamers on the market. On the low end is the $5-per-month Apple TV+ and on the high end is Netflix’s $16-per-month Premium tier.
MacDailyNews Take: Many people could be very happy with subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, and nothing else (and have available more than they could ever hope to be able to watch).
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Does the $14.99 include a redo of Game of Thrones season 8? /s
Shame…shame…shame… lol
It’ll be interesting. Expect prices to rise quickly over the next 5 years. These are everyone’s “Let’s get traction in the market early by losing money on the deal, or we won’t survive” prices. Sony Vue won’t be the last to drop out. Expect only 3-4 choices within 5 years, and the rest will fail or be absorbed. Sadly, that’s when advertising will creep back in, and then they’ll offer ever-more-expensive ad-free tiers. As always, it will suck to be poor.
Fortunately, Glorious Socialism™️ will step in and save the Poor from the Wretched Excesses™️ of capitalism (said no one, ever).
Except you. And you’re wrong.
Socialism:
1. George Washington’s Continental Army
2. The US Navy of John Paul Jones
3. The public library and fire departments in Ben Franklin’s home town
4. The public roads that Paul Revere rode
5. The court in which John Adams defended the accused in the Boston Massacre
6. The law enforcement officials who maintain order and protect property of patriots since day one
Need we go on?
Public pooling of money to accomplish all the big hard things that individuals and profit seeking companies refuse to do is not evil, as long as proper democratic oversight is exercised.
Too bad the GOP doesn’t believe in oversight or accountability anymore.