A cord-cutter’s guide to all the big new streaming services
So your brain is exploding trying to understand all the new streaming TV services. You’re not alone. Making sense of which companies own what content, where that content will be available, how you can access that content, how much everything costs, and whether or not it will be worth your investment are all important questions, and their answers aren’t easy to find in one place. We’re here to help.
The Major Streaming Players
We know that four major global media companies are planning to launch streaming services in the near future:
- WarnerMedia: owner of HBO and Warner Bros.
- Disney: owner of Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar.
- Apple: owner of…phones.
- NBCUniversal: owner of The Office and lots of other TV shows and movies.
Their goal? Cut into Netflix’s monopoly on streaming, take better advantage of their own libraries and intellectual property, stem the tide of TV cord-cutting, and meet consumers where they are. These four won’t be the last major companies to launch proprietary streaming services, but they are the four worth focusing on for now—they’re the biggest, and the most imminent.
Focusing on HBO Max
What is HBO Max? It’s simple: HBO Max is pretty much the reason AT&T bought Time Warner in the first place. Not long after the telecommunications giant acquired Time Warner for $85 billion and renamed it WarnerMedia last year, the company announced it was developing a streaming service that would house content from across Warner’s many brands: HBO, TBS, TNT, CNN, and the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, among other assets. Later, it revealed the service would be called HBO Max (even though it includes plenty of non-HBO content), hoping to capitalize on the prestige TV channel’s cherished global brand.
AT&T thinks HBO Max will not only help it compete against Netflix, but that it will also act as something of a buffer for all the DirecTV customers AT&T is losing to cord-cutting. DirecTV, which is owned by AT&T, lost more than a half million subscribers in the first quarter of this year.
What’s included in a subscription?
WarnerMedia says it will total 10,000 hours of content. These are the main components:
- Everything from HBO: Game of Thrones, The Leftovers, The Sopranos—you name it. If it aired or will air on the HBO linear TV channel, HBO Max will give you access to it.
- Cable Networks: Ditto for shows from Warner’s suite of cable channels, including TBS, TNT, CNN, truTV, and Cartoon Network.
- Warner Bros. movies: WarnerMedia owns the streaming rights to many of the countless films produced under the Warner Bros. banner over the years. So most of those films, from A Star Is Born to Batman v Superman, will appear on HBO Max. But the rights to some of them are tied up with other companies. Harry Potter, for instance, will stream exclusively on NBCUniversal until at least 2025—despite it being a Warner Bros. film franchise.
- Warner Bros. TV shows: The story is the same for shows produced by Warner’s TV unit. WarnerMedia owns the streaming rights to many of them, but not all. Luckily, it’s making things a little easier on us by buying back the rights to many of the shows it licensed out to other services, like Friends.
- BBC and TCM: WarnerMedia recently acquired the streaming rights to several shows produced by BBC, including all 11 seasons of Doctor Who, Luther, and Top Gear. At least some of the thousands of classic films, from Gone With the Wind to Casablanca, from the Turner Classic Movies TV channel will be available.
- Max Originals: WarnerMedia is developing original programming specifically for HBO Max. Reese Witherspoon and Arrowverse super-producer Greg Berlanti are both producing content for HBO Max. There will be a Dune TV series that serves as a prequel to next year’s feature film. There will also be some kind of sequel series to Gossip Girl.
Launch Details and Pricing
When does it launch? A “beta” version of the service will launch later this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. The full version of HBO Max is expected to be available in spring 2020.
How much does it cost? We don’t know for sure yet, but the Wall Street Journal reported that WarnerMedia is eying a $16-to-$17-per-month price tag, which would be $2 more than a standalone HBO subscription and about $4 more than Netflix.
How do I get it? If you’re an existing HBO subscriber, then you’ll probably get access to HBO Max automatically.
