HBO Max to launch $10-a-month tier with ads first week of June - CNET

HBO Max 's cheaper, ad-supported tier will cost $10 a month and launch in the first week of June, WarnerMedia said Wednesday. It'll come the week after -- possibly just days after -- HBO Max premieres its Friends reunion special on May 27, one of the service's most highly anticipated titles that's been delayed by a year because of the pandemic. 

But anyone subscribed to the cheaper tier is expected to be locked out from watching any of the big-screen Warner Bros. movies that HBO Max starts streaming the same day they hit theaters. That means anyone wanting to stream In the Heights, Space Jam: A New Legacy, The Suicide Squad, Dune or The Matrix 4 will have to level up to HBO Max's standard, $15-a-month, ad-free tier. 

The new tier is called simply HBO Max With Ads, and the company said it's committed to having the least amount of commercials of all ad-based streaming services. 

It'll include unconventional ad formats, like ads that show up only when you pause whatever you're watching. HBO Max also plans for ads to show up in what it's calling a brand block, when a single brand is the only one running ads on a block of content, as well as advertising that shows up as you browse or search for something to watch, called branded discovery. 

These nontraditional ad formats are important for HBO Max. The HBO brand and its programming has always leaned into the liberation from standard ad-breaks -- and the creative freedom that allows. Not all programming on HBO Max originates with HBO; the service has licensed shows like Friends and The Big Bang Theory to watch there too. But HBO Max has touted itself as having the kind of premium, sometimes-edgy programming that people have long associated with HBO itself. 

Programs created without advertising in the equation don't have ad-breaks built into their structure, and they also have more liberty to dive into edgier subjects and situations. That makes unconventional formats more crucial for Max than other ad-supported streamers, to avoid interrupting viewers in annoying ways and to keep brands from worrying that their marketing will be put next to something that isn't "brand safe."

HBO Max  launched a year ago as another splashy new service in the so-called streaming wars , a year-and-a-half period when media and technology giants rolled out their own, big-budget services to take on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and the like. Just like Disney Plus , Apple TV Plus  and NBCUniversal's Peacock , HBO Max hopes its particular mix of shows, movies and originals will hook you on its vision for TV's future. But these corporate rivalries also affect how many services you must use -- and pay for -- to watch your favorite shows and movies online.

After a bumpy launch a year ago, HBO Max appears to be hitting a stride. This year, all year, it's streaming  all Warner Bros.' new movies  at no extra charge the same day each film hits US cinemas. Those big-name flicks, plus buzzy originals like the so-called Snyder Cut of Justice League and a Friends reunion special , have attracted more interest in Max. But a new megadeal that  owner AT&T selling off its media operations  and merging them with Discovery means the future shape of HBO Max may be different than it is now. 

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