The new combined streaming app from Warner Bros. Discovery, Max, limits the ads to three to four minutes per hour. At the company’s Upfront event on Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery that Max will feature one of the “lightest ad loads in streaming”.
“Max Ad-Lite subscribers get the same content as ad-free subscribers,” said David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, during the event. “See just three or four minutes of ads per hour and pay just $9.99 per month.”
That puts the service on par with HBO Max, which currently offers four ads per hour on its ad-supported plan. In addition to sharing similar commercial break times, Max will also have the same price of $9.99 per month or $99 per year for its “Ad-Lite” plan, with options for an ad-free plan of $14.99 per month and a $19.99 per month 4K option.
By comparison, both Netflix and Disney Plus already show about four minutes of ads per hour, while Peacock has a slightly longer limit of five minutes. In contrast, the ad-supported subscriptions to Hulu and Paramount Plus have longer and more frequent commercial breaks.
Warner Bros. Discovery also shared some information about what kind of ad spots it’s willing to sell on the platform, and there aren’t many surprises here. Like other services, Max shows pre-roll ads of 15 seconds that appear before your selected content starts, mid-roll ads of 30 to 60 seconds that play in the middle, as well as static ads that appear when you pause what you’re watching.
There will also be some cases where you only see ads at the beginning of the content, and none in the middle, based on a brand paying to “reward” viewers with fewer ads.
Max officially arrives on May 23 and will feature content from both HBO Max and Discovery Plus. While Max will completely replace HBO Max, Discovery Plus will still be available as a standalone app. Max launches with a handful of original titles, such as What am I eating? Featuring Zooey Deschanel, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Clone highAnd Shazam! Anger of the gods. There’s a lot more content planned for June, including Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Avatar: the way of the water, and more. You can view the upcoming table of contents here.
