Max ad-based tier losing news and sports, but there’s good news too

For Max subscribers there’s good news and bad news today, depending on whether you have the ad-supported membership, or you pay to skip commercial interruption.

The bad news? The company is removing the Bleacher Report Sports add-on and the CNN coverage from the ad-supported $9.99 a month Basic plan. That’s happening at the end of March.

That means no more live NBA Basketball, MLB baseball, US national team soccer, or NHL hockey from TNT sports. Considering the beloved NCAA March Madness tournament doesn’t conclude until the second week of April, it means Basic with Ads subscribers won’t get to watch the whole tournament.

The CNN coverage wasn’t quite as comprehensive as the news network’s cable channel, but it was plenty for viewers to get by on.

That’s a downgrade for those users and it’s unfortunate because it removes a big carrot for those putting up with advertisements within their favourite shows.

The good news? Both B/R Sports and CNN Max remain part of Standard and Premium Max plans at no extra cost.

You see, when Max announced to add the add-on in September 2023, it planned to eventually charge for the B/R Sports add-on, after offering it for a limited time for free to all users. Those plans have no been abandoned, but you’ll need to subscribe to one of the ad-free plans in order to get it.

That means paying at least $7 a month more on the $16.99 a month Standard 1080p plan, or the $20.99 a month Premium Max plan that offers 4K, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. Both are ad-free.

A mixed bag

Considering Max had always planned to charge for B/R Sports, it’s not the worst news in the world. Users on Basic with Ads had known the free access was temporary. And the extra $7 to get the Standard tier and keep sports and CNN may have been around that price anyway. For those already on Standard? This is a rare bit of good news when it comes to streaming service prices.

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