Warner Bros. Discovery reversed plans announced in September of 2023 to launch a premium tier for sports programming on Max, and said it also would keep sports and news available for subscribers to its standard and premium service levels
“Over the last year plus, we had the opportunity to assess how users engage with sports and news on Max, and we’ve been actively involved in exploring ways to evolve the sports distribution ecosystem in the U.S. We believe that the best place for that content for now is within the Standard and Premium tiers,” said JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, WBD. “This update ensures that subscribers can continue to enjoy that coveted access within Max, while also enabling ongoing investment in our premium sports and news portfolio.”
The decision was unveiled as Warner Bros. Discovery faces headwinds in the sports arena. After the end of the current NBA season, the company will lose access to the live game telecasts that have filled the schedule of the TNT cable network for years. That means an add-on tier of sports could have significantly less appeal for fans, even though Warner has in recent months tried to bolster its portfolio with new rights deals tied to the French Open and some college football championship games.
Popular on Variety
The company’s work to move CNN to streaming may be rendered more complex by moves at the news operation itself, which has committed to launch a new suite of products for digital and mobile users.
Warner was part of a joint venture with Disney and Fox that sought to launch a separate streaming sports service called Venu. The companies backed away from the project due to legal challenges, even though they had been ready to launch it last fall along with the new NFL season, and hired a CEO.
Most rival streaming outlets do not seek to have subscribers pay extra for sports. Indeed, NBCUniversal has tried to use its sports rights with the NFL and the Olympics to bring new users to Peacock. Amazon hopes its “Thursday Night Football” and a new NBA package drive greater usage of its Prime Video. Netflix did not seek an extra fee for streaming NFL games on Christmas Day.
More to come…