An old DIRECTV perk tied to legacy AT&T wireless and internet plans that included free access to HBO Max, now rebranded Max, is going away.
Customers are reporting that they’ve received a notice that their plan would no longer include Max. DIRECTV said that the customers who are getting the alert are ones that are no longer on an AT&T wireless or internet plan that includes HBO, although some of the complaints are coming from people who say they haven’t made any recent changes.
A spokesman clarified that the affected customers may have changed their plans a while back, whether it was moving to a different AT&T internet service like fiber or switching to a new type of mobile plan, and that the change is just being made now. He noted that customers who believe they’re still on an eligible plan should contact AT&T to ensure that they get access back.
DIRECTV dropping Max represents cutting the last vestiges of a complicated relationship between both AT&T and HBO. When AT&T owned both DIRECTV and Warner Media, it bundled together access to the HBO Max streaming service with home internet, video and cellular plans. But now, AT&T has fully split from Warner, which merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discover. In addition, AT&T spun off DIRECTV as a standalone private business that it has a stake in.
With a lot of the connections frayed or cut altogether, there’s less incentive to keep the promotion going. Not that customers care about the internal machinations and relationships of multi-billion dollar companies.
Free access to streaming services like HBO Max was a big trend a few years back, with Verizon partnering with Disney+ and T-Mobile hooking up with Netflix. But the carriers have in the last year moved away from these freebies, instead offering them at a discount or only including them in the most expensive phone plans.
It looks like DIRECTV is following suit, much to the dismay of its subscribers.