Will it be impossible to watch these shows without ads? Even shows that originally ran on HBO? And unlike cable, you can’t just DVR a show and fast-forward. While it’s nowhere near as bad as cable, which these days can cram more than 20 minutes of ads into an hour, you’re usually going to see your show interrupted four or five times, with ad breaks ranging from as short as 30 seconds to upwards of three minutes, depending on the platform and the show. The trade-off for all this free-streaming goodness? Commercials. ![]() ![]() In addition to giving viewers the chance to watch shows and movies on demand à la Netflix, these platforms offer the option of a linear-TV-like experience, where you scroll through an electronic program guide of virtual channels and just start watching whatever is playing at the time. The big players in the space include Pluto TV, Amazon’s Freevee, Tubi, XUMO, and the Roku Channel. The acronym generally describes streamers that let you watch their content without any sort of subscription and, most of the time, without even entering any sort of personal information. What’s the deal with the FAST stuff, anyway? That’s good news for fans, however, because it means many of the exited titles won’t just collect digital dust in a digital vault. For you or me, the money raised would probably sound like a lot, but for a company the size of WBD, the revenue is apparently not considered “significant” enough to count. That’s because of how deals are done in this part of the business: Rather than paying studios millions up front to license shows, free streamers typically agree to share ad revenue generated by such titles. FAST platforms - such as Pluto TV or the Roku Channel is okay. But apparently, allowing these shows to appear on free, ad-supported TV streamers - a.k.a. That means WBD can’t just sell four seasons of Westworld to Hulu and collect a nice check. The same rules that let WBD turn its losses into “savings” also say that the company can’t gain any material profit from the titles. In addition, a big percentage will very likely show up on other streaming platforms - though probably not big ones such as Netflix or Prime Video. It depends! Many, and possibly most, of the TV shows that are being purged from HBO Max will be available to buy on iTunes or Amazon. Will I ever be able to see these shows again? This isn’t just about saving a few thousand dollars on residual checks or licensing costs it’s about writing down millions in amortization costs these titles would have incurred in coming years.” As we wrote earlier this month, “Taking shows such as Minx or Westworld out of the HBO Max and, more importantly, the WBD library will apparently help the megacorporation make its future balance sheets look a lot better. Essentially, these regulations let the new company write down future losses now under more favorable terms than would normally apply. As it turns out, there are special accounting rules that apply within a few months of a corporate merger like the one that created WBD. ![]() In an attempt to get the company’s finances in better shape, WBD has been laying off staffers, shutting down divisions, and looking for cost savings wherever it can find them. Discovery has more than $50 billion of debt on its balance sheet, and its overall value as a company has sunk this year as Wall Street investors have lost a bit of faith in the long-term profitability of streaming. At the same time, there are folks within HBO proper who believe, now more than ever, their iconic brand needs to be separated from such a big tent streamer. With Homicide Hunter and Who the (Bleep) Did I Marry? soon to live next to The Sopranos and Succession, the thinking is the platform needs a name that doesn’t scare off heartland audiences who want (reality) TV, not HBO. Specifically, subscribers will see a lot more programming from networks such as TLC, HGTV, ID, and the Discovery Channel as WBD essentially shuts down Discovery+ (which costs $5 a month) and merges it with what we now know as HBO Max (starting price $10 per month, though most folks pay $15). That’s partially because, after spending 2022 taking content off its signature streamer, WBD plans to actually start expanding the platform’s offering in 2023. But while nothing is official, the name “HBO Max” is very likely going to change in 2023. Discovery isn’t getting out of the streaming game, and there will continue to be a service that blends everything that airs on HBO’s cable network with a broader mix of content from the WBD library (everything from Friends to Casablanca). First of all: Is HBO Max going away? What is happening?
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