How Will Warner Bros. Discovery Add Live Sports to Max? All Included, Sports Tier, Add-On, Standalone?
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav loves playing the part of a showman. That trait was on display during his company’s conference call with Wall Street analysts to go over WBD’s second-quarter earnings report, specifically when the topic of live sports on the streaming platform Max came up.
Zaslav was asked if he thought WBD might deploy live sports on Max itself, or create another platform for streaming sports like Apple did with MLS Season Pass. He didn’t give much in the way of a detailed response, but he teased that more information would be forthcoming.
“I’ve talked about news and sports as our artillery and a real opportunity for us. So we’ll be coming to you guys soon,” he said coyly.
But there was one hint in Zaslav’s comments that could indicate which direction the company is leaning. He mentioned WBD’s live sports offerings in Europe, where in some cases live sporting events are made available platform-wide, and in other cases, they’re put on a higher-priced tier of discovery+. WBD has an impressive array of live sports rights in Europe, including UEFA Champions League soccer, UFC, WWE, Premier League, and more.
Its sports portfolio in the United States is no less impressive, as WBD holds the rights to a large package of regular-season and playoff NBA and NHL games, in addition to its MLB slate. It is also one of the two broadcasters to air the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. The company also holds the rights to AEW Wrestling, and though these sports have been heretofore reserved for its cable channels TNT, TBS, and truTV, Zaslav has spoken in the past about how WBD builds streaming flexibility into its deals with sports leagues.
It’s likely that the top events, like NBA and NHL regular season and playoff games, would be reserved for a higher-priced tier of Max, which would allow customers who don’t have much interest in live sports to avoid being stuck paying for them. Max could also become a home for pay-per-view AEW events, similar to the Peacock/WWE deal but with a more traditional PPV structure in place — WWE PPVs are included in the price of a Peacock subscription, but NBCUniversal pays to license that content, while WBD already has an existing deal with AEW, so the delivery of the marquee events would likely be different.
Other events, like U.S. Soccer matches featuring both the men’s and women’s national teams could remain available to all Max subscribers regardless of plan. U.S. Soccer was the first live sporting event to stream domestically on Max (HBO Max at the time). Zaslav’s comments seemed to indicate that at least some sporting events would be available platform-wide, because they can breathe life into the entire streamer by giving users content recommendations while they watch the event.
“f you’re on an SVOD platform and something [is] going on in the world and you could see it [on] that platform, [it] makes that platform really alive. So you will hear from us on that soon,” he said.
It's not the first time that Zaslav has said the company was planning to bring live sports to the platform once the company was reasonably confident that Max was up and running. WBD has also taken incremental steps to bring live news to the service, announcing that it was adding live content from CNN to Max this year.
Max
Max is a subscription video streaming service that gives access to the full HBO library, along with exclusive Max Originals. There are hubs for content from TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, TCM, Cartoon Network, Travel Channel, ID, and more. Watch hit series like “The Last of Us,” “House of the Dragon,” “Succession,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and more. Thanks to the B/R Sports add-on, users can watch NBA, MLB, NHL, March Madness, and NASCAR events.