Hope you like fall/winter sports! We finally got some details on Max’s plan to stream live sports. Initial reports of the add-on package being free were correct — but for a limited time only.
The Max Live Bleacher Report (B/R) Sports tier will launch in the U.S. on October 5 and it will be free — for exactly 148 days. (It would be 147 if not for the coming leap year.)
The starting point is timed to give Max subscribers two days to download and install the add-on before Major League Baseball’s National League Division Series begins October 7. The NHL’s regular season begins three days later, and the NBA returns two weeks after that.
Come March 1, 2024, the sports add-on will cost $9.99 per month — just in time for live streams of the Men’s Division I NCAA Basketball Tournament, when March the lamb turns into March the lion. Yes, it’s Madness.
Max will also live-stream U.S. Soccer events, the NHL Winter Classic, NBA’s All-Star Weekend, Turner’s popular “The Match” golf event, and “24 Hours of Le Mans” — all told, “more than 300 premium live games each year,” per Max, plus live pre- and post-game coverage, and library material. All live sports on Max will continue to air on TNT, TBS, and even truTV.
Noticeably absent from the plan is AEW, aka All Elite Wrestling, which is owned and operated by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Tony Khan. IndieWire reached out to both Warner Bros. Discovery corporate and Khan on the omission, but we did not immediately receive responses.
Not surprisingly, there was also no mention of Dana White’s controversial (read: stupid) Power Slap league. Neither of those properties are technically part of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports.
For now, the only comparable streaming products come from Apple with its Major League Soccer package (available as an Apple TV+ extension or as a standalone product) and its “Friday Night Baseball,” which offers exclusive Major League Baseball games and requires an Apple TV+ subscription.
“We’re thrilled to offer WBD’s incredible portfolio of premium U.S. live sports — featuring simulcasts of our must-see MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA and U.S. Soccer events, among others — as part of B/R Sports Add-On’s wide assortment of compelling multi-sport content on Max,” JB Perrette, CEO and president of WBD’s global streaming and games, said in a statement Tuesday. “The greatest collection of Entertainment, News and now Sports all in one place…this makes Max the most complete streaming service for consumers and reaffirms why Max is truly The One To Watch.”
Cool tagline plug, JB. The news thing Perrette is referring to is CNN Max, the latest attempt at streaming CNN that launches September 27. Here’s hoping this one works out better than CNN+. It can’t really be any worse.
