HBO Max launches its $10 ad-supported tier with plenty of limitations
HBO Max is one of the more popular, and more expensive streaming services available today. The company has heard the complaints and decided to launch a new ad-supported tier, priced at $9.99 per month. This is a $5 decrease compared to the “standard” tier that launched at $15 per month. HBO has also launched a new annual payment option for those who would rather pay for an entire year at once instead of paying every month. For the new ad-supported tier, you’ll be looking at $100 per year, while the standard version gets rid of the ads for $150 per year.
While you won’t miss out on any of the content that HBO Max has in its massive library by switching to the ad-supported tier, there are some limitations. The largest of which is the streaming video quality, which has been capped at 1080p, compared to the 4K resolution with the standard tier. As for those commercials, HBO Max states that the ad-supported tier will see a “maximum of four minutes of commercial time per hour”. This is still better than what you might see if you were watching cable TV, where ads and commercials seem to appear every 5 minutes.
Other limitations with this new subscription tier include the lack of being able to download videos for offline viewing. That is being kept for those who are willing to pay the extra $5 per month, which could help influence your decision as the Summer approaches and travel plans are being made.
Finally, we have been seeing more and more movies released on HBO Max and in the theaters on the same day, but those who are on this ad-supported tier will not be able to watch them at the same time. Instead, HBO states that the content will “become available on both tier options when the films debut via the HBO service in the months following their theatrical releases”.
If you want to sign up for this new ad-supported subscription from HBO Max, you can do so starting today.