WBD Scraps Premium Tier Sports Streaming Platform

Warner Bros. Discovery has scrapped its plans to introduce a premium tier for sports programming on its streaming platform, Max.

The decision, a reversal of its announcement in September 2023, means that sports and news content will remain accessible to subscribers at the standard and premium levels.

The shift in strategy comes as Warner Bros. Discovery faces increasing turbulence in the sports broadcasting landscape as the conclusion of the current NBA season will result in the company losing its longstanding rights to live game telecasts on the TNT cable network.

Commenting on the change, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games of WBD, JB Perrette, said: “Over the last year plus, we had the opportunity to assess how users engage with sports and news on Max, and we’ve been actively involved in exploring ways to evolve the sports distribution ecosystem in the U.S. We believe that the best place for that content for now is within the Standard and Premium tiers.”

“This update ensures that subscribers can continue to enjoy that coveted access within Max, while also enabling ongoing investment in our premium sports and news portfolio,” Perrette said.

This significant change would have reduced the appeal of a sports-specific add-on, despite recent attempts to strengthen its offerings with deals for the French Open and select college football games.

The move also aligns with broader industry trends, as competing streaming platforms do not charge extra for sports content. NBCUniversal, for example, leverages its NFL and Olympics rights to attract users to Peacock without an additional fee.

Amazon has similarly integrated sports content, such as “Thursday Night Football” and an upcoming NBA package, into its Prime Video service without requiring a separate payment.

Additionally, Netflix, a newcomer to live sports, streamed its Christmas Day NFL games at no additional cost.

Warner Bros. Discovery had also been part of an ambitious joint venture with Disney and Fox to launch a standalone sports streaming service, Venu, however, due to legal hurdles, the three media giants ultimately abandoned the project, despite being on the brink of launching it alongside the NFL season last year.

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