During an appearance at the Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom conference Thursday morning, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar gave some insight on HBO Max’s plans for a cheaper, ad-supported version of the streaming service.
Kilar hopes that an ad-supported tier would help to attract customers who are on a budget when it comes to their streaming setup.
“It turns out that most people on this planet are not wealthy,” Kilar said. “If we can wake up and use price and be able to kind of invent and do things elegantly through advertising to reduce the price of the service, I think that’s a fantastic thing for fans.”
While Kilar didn’t give an exact date or details on pricing, he said the service is on track to add the new tier later this year.
HBO Max launched in May 2020 at $14.99/month, putting it above other subscription services including Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, and Paramount+. The service had 17.2 million ‘activated subscribers’ by the end of 2020. AT&T CEO John Stankey commented during the company’s Q4 earnings call that HBO Max was “ a full two years” ahead of schedule in reaching subscriber goals.