Big time sports
NBA and MLB Games
‘Bleacher Report Sports’ add-on tier will be available starting Oct. 5, with a promotional period through February
Live sports including NBA and MLB games are coming to the Warner Bros. Discovery WBD -0.17%decrease; red down pointing triangle-owned streaming service Max next month and will cost interested subscribers an additional $9.99 a month, the company said Tuesday.
The charge for the “Bleacher Report Sports” add-on tier—named after the company’s digital sports platform—is a 62% premium over the $16-a-month average subscription fee for the most popular version of the service, which includes content from HBO and Discovery and the Warner Bros. television and movie library.
The lion’s share of live sporting events available on the Bleacher Report add-on tier will be those that air on Warner-owned TV networks such as TNT and TBS. Cable customers who receive those channels will continue to get the same sports content. Those who want additional content available in the Bleacher Sports tier would have to pay for it.
The Bleacher Sports add-on will be available starting Oct. 5, when postseason baseball is under way, and will be complimentary through February 2024. Subscribers can then decide whether to pay the additional monthly fee.
The creation of the new Max tier continues the growing migration of sports to streaming services. Amazon.com’s Prime Video and Google’s YouTube TV carry NFL football while Apple’s TV+ offers professional soccer and baseball.
The approach Max is taking differs from other streaming platforms such as NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Paramount Global’s Paramount+, both of which carry live sports that air on their broadcast networks at no extra charge to subscribers. Media companies pay huge sums for the rights to air live sporting events.
“Our peers are essentially giving away sports for free. That is not the right model,” said JB Perrette, chief executive of Warner Bros. Discovery global streaming and games.
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