HBO Max will launch a cheaper, ad-supported tier of its U.S. streaming service in June, adding commercials to its programming in exchange for a discount to its now $15-a-month subscription price.
Eli Blumenthal and Joan E. Solsman for CNET:
Parent company AT&T didn’t specify the price for the new HBO Max membership level, but it may clarify how much it costs during an investor presentation later Friday.
But the ad-supported version of HBO Max won’t let you stream any of the newest Warner Bros. movies like The Suicide Squad, Dune, and The Matrix 4, which Max is making available at home the same day those movies hit theaters. Only subscribers to its ad-free tier can watch those.
The newer, cheaper tier also won’t splice commercials inside the original HBO programming that has never run with advertising on one of HBO’s own platforms before, according to Jason Kilar, the CEO of AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit that operates HBO Max. Kilar, however, didn’t discuss whether commercials could run before original HBO programming, what is know[n as] preroll advertising.
MacDailyNews Note: The current HBO Max (ad-free) subscription costs $14.99/month.
HBO Max is scheduled to launch in late June in 39 territories1 across Latin America and the Caribbean, marking the first availability for the platform outside the U.S. Territories include: Anguilla, Antigua, Argentina, Aruba, B.V.I., Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Montserrat, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks and Caicos, Uruguay and Venezuela.
So will this be HBO Min?
Who’s going to pay for older movies with commercials and no new releases?
Isn’t that called regular cable already?
It’s actually worse. On cable, you can skip the commercials.
When something is paid for by ads, it is also controlled by ads. Content that ad buyers don’t like is going to have a hard time getting made and shown. If you aren’t paying for a product, you ARE the product. Comercial TV has always been this.
If I have to watch commercials, it better be free.