Good news for owners of VIZIO SmartCast TVs. You can now actually use an HBO MAX app on your VIZIO SmartCast TV. Previously, you had to Cast it through Chromecast to your TV. Which was not a great experience. But as of today, that is a thing of the past.
Warnermedia’s head of partner management and partner marketing, Jennifer Mirgorod stated that “the launch of HBO Max on VIZIO SmartCast TVs is a terrific addition to the vast distribution of the platform, adding to our connected TV footprint and making it easier than ever for our customers to access HBO Max where and how they want.”
VIZIO is also introducing a new custom homescreen carousel for HBO MAX
Along with this launch of HBO MAX on its TVs, VIZIO is also introducing a custom homescreen carousel that will be used to showcase the teaser freebies from HBO MAX.
This is important since HBO MAX no longer offers free trials. But it has announced that a limited sampling of the pilot episodes from more than a dozen of its most popular original series are available to stream in the app, without paying for the subscription. As a way to get users interested and signing up.
The launch on VIZIO comes more than a year after the service launched. But the VIZIO SmartCast platform is likely a pretty small one compared to Roku and Amazon Fire TV, which were ones that were not available at launch for HBO MAX.
HBO MAX is available in two different tiers. There’s the main tier that is $14.99. Which is ad-free and has blockbuster movies the same day they launch in the theaters. Then there’s an ad-supported tier that is $9.99 per month, and it lacks the theatrical releases. It’s not a lot cheaper, but it might be worth it for some.