On Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery and YouTube announced that Max would be available via YouTube’s a la carte Primetime Channels platform beginning on Friday, Dec. 15. However, WBD’s flagship streamer is already available for customers to subscribe to and watch. Additionally, YouTube TV — the company’s live TV streaming service — has integrated two of Max’s live content options into its channel lineup. The CNN Max news content and Bleacher Report Sports Add-On live games are now available alongside the traditional broadcast and cable channels.

• Consumers are now able to subscribe to Max via YouTube Primetime Channels and begin watching immediately.
• YouTube TV has also integrated the CNN Max and Bleacher Report Sports Add-On channels into its lineup.
• Warner Bros. Discovery is taking steps to make its content available as widely as possible.

No Need to Wait

Just hours after initially announcing that Max would be available via YouTube's Primetime Channels streaming hub, it appears that WBD’s streamer is already available at least for some consumers across the country. Initially, the two companies said that the service would be available beginning on Friday, but it is not only already available for purchase, but it is active to begin viewing now as well.

Cord-cutters can subscribe to Max via Primetime Channels without having to also sign up for a YouTube TV package. They are able to sign up for one of Max’s three pricing tiers, ranging from ad-supported for $9.99 monthly to ad-free for $15.99 to ad-free ultimate — which includes additional downloads and higher video quality — for $19.99 per month.

The primary benefit to signing up for Max, or any other streaming channel or service, via a streaming hub like Primetime, Prime Video, or Roku Channel is that all of your payments come in a single monthly bill and there is a centralized spot where you can manage your subscriptions.

In a semi-related move, The Streamable has been able to confirm that for subscribers who add Max to their YouTube TV subscriptions, the live programming from CNN Max and the B/R Sports Add-On has been integrated into the YTTV channel lineup. This is primarily impactful on the news side as the vast majority of CNN Max titles are originals and cannot be found anywhere outside of Max.

However, nearly all of the live sports available on Max via the B/R add-on are also available on one of WBD’s cable channels. There are some United States Men’s and Women’s National Soccer Team matches that are Max exclusives, but the NBA, NHL, and MLB games that are on TNT and TBS are also already available to every YouTube TV subscriber in the base package. Similarly, CNN is a part of the streamer’s base lineup as well, but there are only a handful of shows from the cable version of CNN that are available on Max.

So while this move does not add a tremendous amount of extra value to customers, it does provide a bit of added simplicity for viewers as they scroll through their streaming options as they now have new options as they customize their favorite channel lineups.

From WBD’s perspective, this seems to be the latest move to increase the reach of its content. From licensing shows to other streamers as diverse as free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) platforms like Tubi to allowing Netflix to stream popular series that remained on Max.