HBO Max’s upcoming ad-supported option will keep commercials out of HBO content.
“We will not be having advertising inside of the HBO original series,” WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said Friday during AT&T’s investor day.
The only other big change, besides its cheaper price, is that the ad-supported version will not include the theatrical day-and-date premieres from Warner Bros. The cheaper HBO Max option will launch in June.
“The main difference is going to be the theatrical premieres. They will be in the current version of HBO Max, they will not be in the advertising-supported version of HBO Max. So those will be, by that point in time, about seven movies.”
Earlier during WarnerMedia’s investor day, Kilar said that they’ve already secured $80 million in advertising commitments for HBO Max.
June will be a busy month for HBO Max. In addition to that AVOD launch, which will lower the monthly cost for consumers who are cool with commercials, AT&T will also roll HBO Max out in 60 markets outside of the U.S. in June.
The WarnerMedia parent also updated its subscriber forecasts for the streaming service. They’re now much higher. The former Ma Bell telecom giant now expects between 120-150 million worldwide HBO Max and HBO subscribers by the end of 2025. Previously, in October 2019, AT&T had forecast 75-90 million by then.
AT&T ended 2020 with about 61 million combined HBO and HBO Max subs. The company expects to have 67-70 million at the end of 2021.
Leave a Reply