Cheaper, Ad-Supported HBO Max Subscription Launching in June

[gugy]

Well, we all wanted to end cable bundles, now with so many streaming offers, no wonder adding all of this content will end up costing more than the traditional cable.
I only have Netflix because of TMobile and Prime because Amazon bundle it. I am sick of so many subscriptions.
Use free YT quite a lot and that's about it.

 

[AppleTO]

How many multiple streams are allowed? And can they be in different households?

Kind of kidding but also kind of curious.

 

[Cosmosent]

If they price it @ $4.99 USD per month (OR less), AppleTV+ is effectively sunk !

Apple will continue to dole-out $5B USD per year into their TV service, but it will continue to be a FREE service to most for the foreseeable future, very-likely until Cancelled by whoever takes over for Cook.

Cook will, for his part, string it out as long as possible, because he absolutely does NOT want to divulge paying sub numbers at Quarterly Earnings Calls !

AAPL's stock will take a 20% hit on the first day he does that, & I'm sure he knows it !

 

[jlc1978]

True... but, there are so many junk channels that wouldn't be able to stay in business without those revenues because no one watches them and therefore no ad revenue. Which is why I support debundling, let them sink or float on their own.

The problem with debundling is each popular channel will charge more than it gets from cable/streaming providers so the ultimate cost is often more for al la carte.

Never a fan of ad supported. Why would you go and pay for a service and just get commercials on it, just because?

Cost. If someone is willing to get ads the price is lower.'

False. I do not pay for a TV subscription, because I don't like paying for things I don't use. I only subscribe to disney+, Hulu with ads (because I got it free with my LG TV), and Prime. I also don't like the idea of each platform commanding a premium for their content.

That's what happens when they debundle. Fewer subscribers than cable so to make the same amount of revenue they raise the costs of the unbundled offering. Plus they often know they can charge more and so do.

It's physically impossible to watch all the new content across all platforms, and I don't think it's realistic to believe that someone would watch only the content from one platform. We're past the point of saving money by "cutting the cable." Once everyone started producing their own content, the streaming industry ran off the rails

That's the upshot of cord cutting - companies now can charge more for the same product. A lot of people thought undbundling would lower their bills, all it did was allow companies to collect a premium for their content and raise the final price if you want more than one or two services.

Which is ********. If I pay I want no ads. I am willing to pay whatever amount keeps me from seeing the corporate propaganda.

Then buy the ad free version; or forgo the channel if there isn't one.

 

[Apple_Robert]

At the moment, I have HBO Max with my AT&T TV Now package. Next month AT&T is raising my grandfathered "Go Big" package by $10 a month. I don't think I am going to continue at that price. I definitely wouldn't pay for an HB channel with ads. I hate ads. I don't watch or listen to them.

 

[jlc1978]

At the moment, I have HBO Max with my AT&T TV Now package. Next month AT&T is raising my grandfathered "Go Big" package by $10 a month. I don't think I am going to continue at that price. I definitely wouldn't pay for an HB channel with ads. I hate ads. I don't watch or listen to them.

I dumped them for YouTubeTV when they started jacking up the price; will keep fiber as long as they give me the $50/month plan, which includes HBOMax. I tried TVision and liked it but the family kept complaining that they had to go to the CBS app; no matter how often I said we can subscribe to CBS and TVision and still save $10/month and have more content they whined. I finally agreed if they kicked in $20/month for YouTubeTV.

 

[Rogifan]

That's doable, but you'll just see much much more ads. By the time the show returns from a commercial break, you'll forget what you've been watching.

The Food Network app is like that. If you’re using it with a cable/satellite subscription the commercial breaks are sometimes 8 ads, 30 seconds each. I can put up with some ads but not blocks that last 2-3 minutes.

 

[topdrawer]

this is not good. i get a free subscription with my phone service, which means they will likely bundle the ad version instead.

 

[sw1tcher]

While that would be ideal, Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock all have ad-supported tier, none of them free. I would say 50% off is about right. So $7.49 for HBO Max, most likely rounded up to $7.99.

It'd have to be more than 50% off.

I'm only subscribing to Hulu with ads because it's $1.99/mo vs the regular $5.99/mo. That's 67% off.

Recently subscribed to Peacock Premium for $4.99/mo, but that's only because of multiple credit card offers for $5 cash back. Once those are all redeemed, I'm done.

 

[mrow]

Hopefully they don’t end up neutering content to please advertisers. Something like Game of Thrones would never happen if it relied on ads. Too much sex and violence.

 

[nutmac]

It'd have to be more than 50% off.

I'm only subscribing to Hulu with ads because it's $1.99/mo vs the regular $5.99/mo. That's 67% off.

You are not getting 67% off. Hulu Premium (without ads) is $11.99, Hulu Basic (with ads) is $5.99. $1.99 promo is more than 80% off, and you are not likely going to retain that price after 1-year promo period.

 

[sw1tcher]

You are not getting 67% off. Hulu Premium (without ads) is $11.99, Hulu Basic (with ads) is $5.99. $1.99 promo is more than 80% off

🤦‍♂️ How am I not getting 67% off? (66.78% to be exact).

Hulu with ads is regularly $5.99/mo. I'm paying $1.99/mo for it. Do the math. $1.99 is 1/3 of $5.99

and you are not likely going to retain that price after 1-year promo period.

I've been paying $1.99/mo for Hulu with ads since Black Friday of 2019. My current $1.99/mo offer ends November 2021. Prior to this, I was paying $0.99/mo (Nov. 2018 - Nov. 2019)

some months are actually free if I don't charge anything else to my credit card due to what's known as a small balance credit

 

[Unity451]

I'm paying $100 a month for a mid tier TV package and it's basically 1/3 ads.

How many channels do you get? I'm guessing you don't regularly watch even half of them. If you do, how many of the shows do you watch on each channel? I'm guessing a small fraction. Those companies make the bulk of their money by charging advertisers for ad space, not by charging you $4.99, 9.99, etc. The only reason why they feel the need to charge you for access while still running ads is because they either can't breakaway from the antiquated cable subscription model or they're spending too much money on producing content. Not to sound like an Apple fanboy, especially because I'm not a fan of the majority of Apple TV+ content, but they've got it right... they produce a limited amount of high-quality production content (love it or hate it), and only charge for access to it. It's not bloated with a bunch of mediocre shows/movies, and they don't try to double dip with the customer AND the advertiser.

 

[Unity451]

That's doable, but you'll just see much much more ads. By the time the show returns from a commercial break, you'll forget what you've been watching.

More of reason to make better content. Maybe if they focused on that and cut out all the fluff from the beginning, they wouldn't need to charge as much.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Seems like taking a step back for no reason. HBO has always been ad-free. I don’t think anybody wants to watch The Sopranos with commercial interruptions.

If HBO Max wasn’t included with my HBO subscription then I wouldn’t pay $14.99/month for it. Offering an ad-free tier for a few dollars less won’t change that. I enjoy the service, but the only way $14.99 makes any sense is because of the same-day movie releases.

 

[MICHAELSD]

If they price it @ $4.99 USD per month (OR less), AppleTV+ is effectively sunk !

Apple will continue to dole-out $5B USD per year into their TV service, but it will continue to be a FREE service to most for the foreseeable future, very-likely until Cancelled by whoever takes over for Cook.

Cook will, for his part, string it out as long as possible, because he absolutely does NOT want to divulge paying sub numbers at Quarterly Earnings Calls !

AAPL's stock will take a 20% hit on the first day he does that, & I'm sure he knows it !

AppleTV+ isn’t that critical to Apple’s future or bottom line. It does seem like it may eventually end up being phased out. Which is fine, not every venture has to be successful. They can afford a few missteps.

 

[sw1tcher]

AppleTV+ isn’t that critical to Apple’s future or bottom line. It does seem like it may eventually end up being phased out. Which is fine, not every venture has to be successful. They can afford a few missteps.

Spending over 10% per year of your annual net income to develop content for something that could end up being a misstep is not something to just brush away.

 

[BuffaloTF]

I don’t know why they’re so dead set on cheapening the HBO brand. It’s like if Rolex suddenly started selling Romex on street corners officially.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

My parents are the ones that watch it the most - Dad balked when I tried to cancel. I’m not getting $12 worth a month out of it - except for WW. I’d drop to the ad supported and skip the movie releases.

A lot of the originals on it and Peacock (stuck with Comcast so that’s free) are imports from elsewhere. That isn’t bad, but when the season is behind - give me two at a time!

Disney+ and peacock are watched the most. Did the 3 year deal on Disney, will always have that. Hulu is the $2 deal for the year, netflux is free/$5 with T-Mobile, peacock is free. Crap, I did the paramount one - I haven’t even watched it 🤪🤣

HBO is the easiest to dump, tell me the price and I shall decide.

 

[nutmac]

🤦‍♂️ How am I not getting 67% off? (66.78% to be exact).

Hulu with ads is regularly $5.99/mo. I'm paying $1.99/mo for it. Do the math. $1.99 is 1/3 of $5.99


I've been paying $1.99/mo for Hulu with ads since Black Friday of 2019. My current $1.99/mo offer ends November 2021. Prior to this, I was paying $0.99/mo (Nov. 2018 - Nov. 2019)

some months are actually free if I don't charge anything else to my credit card due to what's known as a small balance credit

My original point was that Hulu Basic (ad supported at $5.99/month) is 50% discount over Hulu Premium (without ads at $11.99/month). And that HBO Max should offer a similar discount, or $7.49 over $14.99.

You are doing math on your Black Friday discount over Hulu Basic. $1.99 vs. $5.99, which is 67%.

 

[Geronimo]

Are Max Originals just a rebranded name for HBO originals like The Wire, Curb, etc.? Or are they exclusive to the streaming platform and not on the HBO cable channel/on-demand section? Just curious. I have HBO Max through my cable subscription, but I can't keep up with the constant rebranding and different tiers of all the different platforms.

No, Max Originals are the new line of content that's exclusive to the HBO Max app. They do not appear anywhere else in the US, so they're not on the HBO linear channels. Max Originals include series like The Flight Attendant, Love Life, and Raised by Wolves and movies like SuperIntelligence and Locked Down.

HBO Originals -- that's the stuff that makes up the traditional HBO service (outside of theatrical films) -- series like The Wire, GoT, Insecure, plus original docs, etc.

On the HBO cable channels you just get the HBO Originals plus the theatrical films that HBO currently features. In the HBO Max app, you get all that plus the new Max Originals as well as lots of older seasons of TV shows, plus additional movies. Entire series like Big Bang Theory, The West Wing, Friends, Looney Tunes, etc. plus past seasons of certain current series like Young Sheldon, Rick and Morty, Snowpiercer, etc.

 

[Geronimo]

My original point was that Hulu Basic (ad supported at $5.99/month) is 50% discount over Hulu Premium (without ads at $11.99/month). And that HBO Max should offer a similar discount, or $7.49 over $14.99.

You are doing math on your Black Friday discount over Hulu Basic. $1.99 vs. $5.99, which is 67%.

Except that it appears that the ad-supported version of HBO Max is going to offer the *entire HBO library* with all of it still being ad-free. That alone was $15/mo prior to last May's launch of HBO Max. (And it was doing pretty well, with about 35 million US subscribers.)

So if this new cheaper tier of HBO Max still includes all of the traditional HBO service, and all of it still ad-free, but with all the additional HBO Max content having ads, I'd be surprised if it was less than $10/mo. Heck, I'm surprised that they're even including the entire HBO catalog in this cheaper tier.

 

[nutmac]

Except that it appears that the ad-supported version of HBO Max is going to offer the *entire HBO library* with all of it still being ad-free. That alone was $15/mo prior to last May's launch of HBO Max. (And it was doing pretty well, with about 35 million US subscribers.)

So if this new cheaper tier of HBO Max still includes all of the traditional HBO service, and all of it still ad-free, but with all the additional HBO Max content having ads, I'd be surprised if it was less than $10/mo. Heck, I'm surprised that they're even including the entire HBO catalog in this cheaper tier.

With AT&T running HBO Max, I share your skepticism. While I still think ad-supported HBO Max should cost about 50% of ad-free HBO Max, knowing AT&T, it will either be priced at minimum of $9.99 with ads and full contents OR priced at around $7.99 with limited contents (e.g., no back seasons or new seasons of HBO Originals).

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

I’m definitely going to take a cheaper subscription for HBO Max.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Spending over 10% per year of your annual net income to develop content for something that could end up being a misstep is not something to just brush away.

It is a massive waste of funds that didn’t seem to be a smart investment to begin with, but they’ll recover.

The future of Apple TV+ is in the Apple One bundle.