HBO Max will be available as a bundle with AT&T TV in 2020.
The company confirmed the availability of the bundle during its WarnerMedia day.
AT&T plans to launch HBO Max properly in 2020.
Bundling HBO with live TV
AT&T and WarnerMedia have now confirmed HBO Max will be available as part of a bundle with AT&T TV. This is in addition to the option to subscribe to just HBO Max.
Firm details on when this will happen were not provided. However, the bundle is expected to become available in 2020.
HBO Max is not due to properly launch until 2020, so it remains to be seen how soon after the launch the bundle will become available.
AT&T and WarnerMedia did say current HBO customers will be able to upgrade immediately to Max on launch day.
Bundling to offer more value?
AT&T is not short on video services and getting consumers to subscribe to all of them is probably a lot harder to do.
One of the ways to make it easier for consumers to subscribe to more than one service is to bundle them together.
AT&T already does this with its current AT&T TV NOW plans. For example, both the AT&T TV Plus and Max plans come with free HBO. The Max plan also includes free Cinemax.
However, it remains to be seen how this will affect plan prices in the long-term. AT&T has been no stranger to price increases this year and one did come through the moment HBO was added as a “free” service.
It would seem likely that the bundling itself won’t directly result in more value without a further price increase coming through.
Might not be coming to AT&T TV NOW
AT&T did not spend much time delving into the detail on this bundle other than to say it will be included with AT&T TV.
It seems unlikely the NOW version of the service will benefit in the same way. This may in fact be how the company further differentiates the NOW and standard version by adding HBO Max to just the higher-priced service.
AT&T did confirm that in 2021 it will look to launch an AVOD version of the service. Again, few details on this development were provided.
For reference, AVOD refers to an ad-supported service. Therefore, AT&T has now confirmed an ad-supported version of HBO Max will launch in 2021.
Until then, it will only be available at full price and ad-free.