Warner Bros. Discovery Mum on Live Sports, News Plans on Max for Now; Plans to Become Industry Leader in Both
We know a lot more about Max — the new forthcoming streaming platform from Warner Bros. Discovery — than we did at this time last week. Thanks to a huge press event on April 12, we know it’ll be launching May 23, and that it will retain the same prices HBO Max currently charges, with an added Ultimate tier that will offer more features for $19.99. We also know Max will keep the features your current account offers for six months after the May 23 switchover.
One subject that got barely any mention was WBD’s plans to offer live sports and news on Max. The company has just barely begun dipping its toe in the water in offering live sports via streaming in the United States, presenting several U.S. Men's and Women's National Soccer Team games on HBO Max this season. In Europe, it’s a different matter, as WBD uses its platform discovery+ to stream the Olympics, cycling, soccer, and more on that continent.
There were a few enticing comments about plans to expand sports and news coverage on Max in the future from WBD executives, however. Company CEO David Zaslav lent some rather aggressive phraseology as he offered a hint of what was to come in that regard.
“We’re a global leader in sports and we’re a global leader in news,” he said. “And in a few months, we’ll come back to you with details of our attack plan to use this important and differentiating live content to grow our streaming business even further.”
The Streamable reached out to WBD for further comment on its plans to offer live sports on the service, and was told by a company spokesperson, “We’ll have more to share about our content strategy and how sports will fit into it closer to launch.”
Those comments, especially Zaslav’s use of the phrase “attack plan,” don’t make it seem as if the company will rest on its laurels and ignore the opportunities to integrate more live sports and news programming into Max. WBD owns CNN — which briefly had its own streaming platform CNN+ — but this was one of the first segments of the company to be shuttered when WarnerMedia was acquired by Discovery last spring. CNN could produce an exclusive show for Max, or maybe the company will consider putting a livestream of the channel on its Ultimate tier, as Paramount+ does with CBS on its Premium plan.
WBD also currently holds an impressive array of sports broadcasting rights. Its linear cable channels TNT and TBS air MLB, NBA, and NHL games, both in the regular season and the playoffs. NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games also air on the Turner Networks, as well as their sibling channel truTV. Clearly, there are options available to the company if it wants to start offering more live sports via streaming on Max.
But don’t expect an all-at-once kind of announcement when WBD does reveal its plans to put more live sports on the service. WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels gave a bit of insight into the company’s thinking in January, and perhaps offered another hint of what was to come in that arena.
“It’s important to be able to experiment, to dip the toe in the water, “Wiedenfels said. “And we’ve seen some real success in the streaming space for sports in Europe or with our Eurosport asset, the Olympics deal. We found a way, not as a fully integrated bundle, but as a sell-through tier to generate some value. So it’s important to have that flexibility there as well.”
That statement indicates his company’s continuing caution, but also perhaps sheds some light on how WBD will offer more live sports domestically. The Ultimate plan, which will roll out with the rest of Max on May 23, could be a starting place for a few streaming NHL or NBA games. Then the company could potentially launch another, higher-priced tier down the road that would expand the offering of games even further, which would still allow users the flexibility to pay for what they want to see.
There is some question as to how much longer WBD will hold its NBA rights, however. The current broadcasting agreement between the two companies only lasts until the end of the 2024-2025 season, and reports suggest the league is looking for a significant raise over the $2.6 billion per year it now receives from Warner and ESPN. That may be a big reason Zaslav was quoted in November as saying his company doesn’t “have to have the NBA,” and NBC, Apple, and Amazon have all been named as potentially interested parties in acquiring the NBA’s rights.
But according to a report from Front Office Sports, nothing has really changed internally at WBD in regards to the company’s feelings about the NBA. TNT averaged 1.4 million viewers per game this season, and WBD wants to hold onto sports rights with broad appeal. It was also reported in October that TNT had resigned its entire “Inside the NBA” crew to 10-year contract extensions, which would be a difficult move to justify if WBD didn’t plan to keep the league on its channels for the long term.
Because of the numerous sets of rights the company holds, WBD could become a leader in sports streaming quickly if it decided to. Netflix, by contrast, is just beginning to offer live events, and company executives have repeatedly made it sound as if sports are a long way off for the service. Apple is trying to jump in with both feet with the launch of its new streaming platform MLS Season Pass, which hosts hundreds of Major League Soccer games every season.
Paramount+ and Peacock both offer live sports, including the NFL, but they wouldn’t be able to match the volume of MLB, NHL, and NBA games WBD could start offering if it wanted to. But once again, users should expect Max to take a “walk before running” approach to its live sports programming.
There’s a lot more information about Max available than there was just a few short days ago. Users are still waiting on some important answers from WBD, but the company knows if it fumbles its opportunity to roll out live sports and news on Max the right way, it could be hard to recover from. That’s why customers of HBO Max and its descendant Max will have to exercise a bit of patience in waiting for word from WBD about those plans.
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.