Max hopes to launch a live-sports tier on its streaming service by early October, in time for the baseball playoffs, according to a new report.
CNBC reported Monday that Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.’s
WBD,
streaming service plans to significantly bolster its live sports offerings by simulcasting games from Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the NCAA — including March Madness basketball.
The new Max tier, which will cost extra, will be branded under the Bleacher Report banner, CNBC said. Max is currently offered at $9.99 a month with ads, and $15.99 with no ads. The report did not say how much more the new sports tier may cost.
According to the report, Max will not exclusively stream any games until 2024 at the earliest. Instead, the plan is to stream games that are also broadcast on WBD’s cable channels, which include TBS and TNT.
The former HBO Max had shunned live sports for years despite being under the same corporate umbrella as Turner Sports, but started livestreaming the U.S. men’s and women’s national soccer teams earlier this year.
Adding live sports would put Max on a more equal footing with streaming rivals that carry live sports, such as Comcast’s
CMCSA,
Peacock, Paramount+
PARA,
Amazon’s
AMZN,
Prime Video and Apple TV+
AAPL,
Meanwhile, Disney
DIS,
is working on spinning off ESPN as a separate, direct-to-consumer service, and Netflix
NFLX,
is taking baby steps into live sports, though co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in July he’s satisfied with the company’s “sports-adjacent programming,” which include a number of popular sports docuseries.
Live sports are increasingly being seen as a key to growing — and retaining — streaming subscribers. Such a shift would be a seismic move to the TV landscape, where live sports are a roughly $19 billion-a-year industry, and largely prop up a number of broadcast and cable TV networks.
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