We Breakdown NEW Cheaper HBO Max Plans (HBO Max with Ads & Annual Plan) | Streaming Insider Ep. 35

hbo max came out with two new plans today that will save you a little bit of money and we'll go through them for you. coming up on the streaming insider: what's up streamers- it's jason from the stream bowl. and this week hbo max came out with hbo max with ads and we're going to explain to you what has ads, what the price is and what that means for you if you want to subscribe. but also they came out with new annual plans that will let you save a little bit. i'm gonna go through all those coming up, but first make sure you hit that like button. the more people who like this, the more people will see it and more great content i can keep bringing to you. and make sure you hit subscribe. one of our first 10 000 subscribers will have a chance to win a brand new roku ultra, and it can be you. but for now, let's tok about hbo max. until now, hbo max has been one of the more expensive streaming services, even more than netflix's standard plan at 14.99 a month. but a year after launching, they're introducing a brand new plan called hbo max with ad. and if you've been afraid of ad supported plans in the past because you're like: i just don't want ads. let me explain to you that this ad supported plan is a little bit different. i'm going to tell you where ads exist and where they don't and why you might want it. but, to start, you'll save a lot of money by switching to this plan. it's only 9.99 a month, which is five dollars less than their 14.99 ad free plan, but on top of that, you don't really have to be afraid of ads all that much, and the reason why is twofold. first, ads will only exist on certain content. on hbo max, the ads will only appear on mac's originals, like love life and the flight attendant and the upcoming sex in the city and gossip girls reboot, and on items that are only in the max library, and what i mean by that is shows like friends and the fresh prince of bel-air and the west wing and south park and big bang theory- all the shows that weren't on hbo before it became hbo max. on top of it, hbo max with ads is gonna have the lowest ad load in the industry, and what that means is it's gonna have the fewest ads per hour of any of the on-demand streaming services. and let me tell you how that compares. each blue max will only have four minutes of ads per hour, and again, that's only if you're watching certain content. when you compare that to other streaming services, up until now peacock actually had the lowest ad load per hour, where they had five minutes of ads per hour, and then hulu and paramount plus generally has anywhere from six to nine minutes of ads, depending on the show. so if you've ever seen ads on those other services before, you'll expect hbo max to have about half the ads as those, and my expectation is those ads will be broken up into four chunks per hour, so you'll see about a minute per ad block compared to about 90 seconds in what you see on who. but there are some other reasons why you might choose the more expensive 1499 hbo max plan compared to the ad supported 999 plan. so there's two features that are missing from the ad supported plan. first is offline downloads. in fact, no ad supported plan- whether it's paramount plus, hulu or peacock- offers offline downloads on their plan with ads just like those. you'll have to upgrade to the ad free plan in order to do it and then, second, you won't be able to have any 4k content on the ad supported plan. you'll have 1080p content, so pretty good, but you won't get 4k. but for now that's not that big of a deal because hbo max 4k content is very, very limited, so you're not giving up very much in that regard. and the other major difference is hbo max, throughout 2021, will be releasing water brothers movies the same day they hit theaters. but if you have hbo max with ads, you won't be able to watch them at least the same day they hit theaters. you will be able to watch them when they become part of standard hbo, which is about six months after they appear in theaters. so if you don't want to go to theaters and you want to watch those movies right away, you'll still need to choose the 14.99 ad free plan. but regardless whether you want the ad supported or ad free plan, there is a new way to save. today, hbo max introduced an all new annual plan where, if you pre-pay for a full year of service, you'll save about 16. so what that means is the hbo max with ads plan is 99.99 for the entire year, which works out to about 8.50 a month, which is a dollar fifty less than it normally is when you pay monthly, and hbo max at free is just 149.99 for the entire year, which works out to 12.49 a month, which is about a 2.50 savings compared to the monthly plan. so you are gonna save a bit of money. but remember, if you are gonna lock yourself into an annual plan, you're not gonna be able to jump around from streaming services, so you should take that into mind. but if you think you're gonna keep hbo max all year long, you should upgrade to get the annual saving. so that's it. that's everything you need to know about the brand new hbo max with ads and how it compares to hbo max ad free and other ad supported streaming services out there. if you have any questions on this, make sure you leave us a comment below and if you found this video helpful, make sure you hit that like button, because the more people like this, the more people will see it and the more great content i can keep bringing to you. and if you want great streaming tips all year long, make sure you hit subscribe and visit us every day at thestreammobilecom for the latest in streaming news and reviews and for the streamable. i'm jason. have a great week, bye.

Is HBO Worth It? 🤔| HBO Max Review 2022

there's been a lot of buzz around hbo max recently. some of it is good and some of it not so much. is hbo max still worth it? stay tuned to find out. [Music]. all right, so first let's go over the basics for what you need to know about hbo max. now for the uninitiated. hbo max is, of course, the streaming service from warner media, which is now a part of the company warner brothers discovery. you'll get thousands of great movies and tv shows, including originals. hbo max currently offers two plans for their subscribers. the first is hbo max with ads. that includes limited advertising on certain shows. that is either 9.99 per month or 99.99 for an entire year. you can also get hbo max ad free. that also gives you the option for offline downloads and 4k streaming for 14.99 a month or 149.99 per year. right now, hbo max does not offer a free trial. however, if you want to learn about some discounts, stay tuned to the end of the video when i'll go over some ways to save money on hbo max. now, as for the advertising on hbo max, that cheaper plan at 9.99 per month only features a maximum of four minutes of ads per hour. this is actually a lot less intrusive than some of their competitors, like hulu. when surveyed, hbo max customers indicated that they were the least annoyed by hbo max compared to the other streaming services with advertising. and if you're confused about the difference between hbo and hbo max, just remember this: hbo is the cable channel that's been around since the 80s that you can get as a premium add-on to a cable package. hbo max is the streaming service that's offered by the same parent company as hbo. with hbo max, you'll get the same shows and movies that you would get on hbo, but you also get additional shows and movies that are only on hbo max. if you get hbo as a channel with your cable package, you will be able to get hbo max at no extra cost, and i'll have a link down in the description to an artikle that goes through all those details. now, before we go any further, i think there's something i need to address. what's that noise? could it be the elephant in the room? now, if you've paid attention to any kind of entertainment media or just the buzz on twitter recently, you'll see that there were a lot of shows cancelled by hbo max, some of which were taken off completely without warning. the most controversial thing that happened would probably be the batgirl movie that was set to debut as an hbo max original film. it was almost finished and they had even begun test screenings. it cost over 90 million dollars to produce and they have completely shelved this movie, opting to receive a tax write-off instead. the reason for these cancellations and the shelving of movies like back roll all stems down to one thing: next year, hbo max and discovery plus are set to merge into one streaming service after their parent companies merged together earlier this year. the ceo of this newly combined company, david zazlov, is going through the entire company with a fine-tooth comb, finding any possible cost cutting measures he can take. this is all a part of a realignment of their operations that you normally see when companies consolidate together. now, as additional changes happen over the next year, i'll be covering those on this youtube channel and also on my website at shelleystreamitcom, but for now, i'm going to focus on hbo max as it exists at the time i'm recording this video in august of 2022.. so next let's get on to what's on hbo max now. warner brothers discovery, which is the company, again, that owns hbo max, has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to characters and franchises they have access to. they're really the only company besides disney that has so much ip. this includes dc comics, looney tunes, cartoon network, harry potter, the matrix, scooby doo, game of thrones, among others. they filled hbo max's library with content from these franchises, as well as beloved tv shows and movies from throughout hollywood history. as netflix has shifted away from acquired programming and moved towards a service that is mostly netflix originals, this impressive back catalog on hbo max really stands out even more. here are some of the highlights. now, of course, you'll get the shows and movies from hbo. that includes everything from game of thrones, house of the dragon westworld, euphoria, the rehearsal with nathan fielder, berry, sex and the city- all of those shows that long time fans of hbo know and love. you'll also get hbo max originals. now some of the hbmx originals that weren't as popular have been on the chopping block in partikular, and there are rumors that more cuts are on the way. my recommendation would be: if you want to watch some of these shows, do it soon. however, we do have confirmation from a trailer that hbo max came out with recently that several of these shows will be going into additional seasons within the next year. those include hacks. our flag means death, tokyo vice and, just like that, julia and the minks. now, if you're a fan of dc comics, hbo max is a no brainer when it comes to becoming a subscriber. just like disney owns the rights to marvel, warner brothers discovery owns the rights to dc comics. you'll see a live action and animated movies and tv shows featuring characters like batman, wonder woman, aquaman or superman, as well as the other members of the justike league. as for the back catalog, hbo max is one of the best streaming services for movie lovers. period. if it's recent blockbusters you're after. warner brothers has put almost all of their recent theatrical releases on hbo max. now it's not quite the same as it was in 2021, where they came out in theaters and on hbo max on the same day, but it's a safe assumption that if something is made by warner brothers, eventually it'll wind its way to hbo max for classic films from every era. turner classic movies has a curated selection, and there's several big tv shows that you will only find on hbo max. and finally, they do have a fair amount of kids and family content, although when it comes to those cuts that i mentioned earlier, they have put the brakes on some of these shows. you'll find kids programming featuring characters from sesame street, which hbo max gains the streaming rights to, from pbs, looney tunes, classic cartoon characters like scooby doo and also the cartoon network. as for the hbo max app, this has seen significant improvements over time. when hbo max first launched in 2020, the app was glitchy and had a bunch of problems. the good news is, since then, with software updates, they have seen significant improvements. now, watching hbo max is a simple, user-friendly experience, free from tiknical errors, at least for the most part. you can watch hbo max from three devices at a time. you can have up to five profiles per account. they allow for offline downloads. with the ad free plan, they have parental controls to restrict what your kids can see, video streams and up to 4k resolution for select titles with the ad free plan, and certain titles on the ad free plan are also eligible for 5.1 surround sound and dolby atmos. certain tv shows have a shuffle button so you can watch an episode at random, and you can watch hbo max with friends over a facetime call with the feature called shareplay. now, one of the things that i really like about the hbo max app is the app interface itself. they do things that are just more creative and visual than other streaming services. navigating through the menus, you'll see a large poster size images of different movies and tv shows, and they do creative things to help you discover new titles. last october, for example, you had the choice between one of three doors and the halloween section. they were marked not scary at all scary or very scary, like in the it movies. choosing one of these three doors each day led you to a different movie or tv show. now let's get on to discounts. hbo max has offered different promotions from time to time. whenever that happens, i do update my page at shallowstreamitcom: forward slash deals. so if you want to check that out, make sure t.

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HBO Max To Offer Cheaper Package With Commercials

yeah. so atrial max has had a bit of a uphill battle so far. um, it didn't have the best launch- not launching on roku and amazon- and now it seems like they're doing another desperation call as, uh, they're gonna be offering a new package with more affordable pricing. however, there's a catch. so hmx currently is 14.99, so basically 15 bucks. you get the premiers and everything else, but they're going to offer a package starting in june for 9.99 a month. you get hbo max, but you get it with ads and also, something that people aren't toking about enough- you get it with ads, but you also don't get your same day as movie premieres. um, you would have to pay the 15 bucks. so if you want to see the suicide squad or dune come out the same day as it comes out in theaters, you would have to have the higher tier. this to me seems like yet another desperation play here. um, from hbo max, like a lot of their moves have just come across as utterly desperate, whether it's: um, hey guys, you don't need to see the movies in theaters, you can just watch them at home for no additional cost. it doesn't matter if we pissed off every single director that's ever existed doing this. it's best for us and so far it hasn't hasn't worked out for them. like they're getting some people but they're not projecting as fast as some others. i honestly think peacock has done better financially than them. i think peacock- last time i checked- is that like 44 million subscribers. they got those really quick. one peacock is cheaper but two, peacock has the office and like no matter where you stand on that, people are gonna flock to that, no matter what, it's comfort food for people. i think peacock as a whole was much more user-friendly off the bat, has made less mistakes than hbo max. but, josh, do you think this 999 is a good move for hbo max or a stupid one? here's the thing. um, hbo max is like hulu in that the interface can be very difficult to navigate. yes, now, with them going, hey, you can have ads or you can't ads- like you're basically hulu now with like more aggressive content. that's all it is. i won't say the interface is as bad as hulu's. i think hulu still has the worst interface of any streaming service. it's really hard to find content on hulu. it is, but maybe it's not as much for me because i have been using hulu for so long, so i'm just kind of used to where things kind of are, but like, even then, yeah, i think hulu is bad for discovery. if you know what you're looking for and you know it's on hulu, it's not that hard to find it. or if you're looking for the stuff they advertise. if you're looking for more the obscure titles, they bury the crap out of those on hulu and they make it very difficult. uh, i think there's a lot of features that issue max could improve upon first, before doing this tier. um, we're still missing a crap ton of 4k content. um, they just recently introduced personalized profile pictures, but only on, like, certain mobile devices. like, when i watch the app on my tv, it still just says my name, but if i watch it on the ps5, it's got my little superman logo that i uploaded. like it's super weird and super inconsistent. which, yes, josh, i gave you the cyborg logo. i was like: what is this? i'm not cyborg. if i'm any character, okay, definitely not cyber. okay, i can upload any logo. is there a preferred logo you would like? also, cyborg is one of the default ones. okay, that's fair. where are some other ones you can upload? do you want to be statik? no, i'm not cool enough to be statik, that's true. um, let me, i like how i'm going to say. i'm going to say i'm not cool enough to be statik, make me create a kratos. i'll, i'll make you this kratos, the kratos that you're on on the show here. okay, just off the cuff, josh, if you were in charge of warner brothers and you were tasked with, how do we get people to sign up for hmx or quote-unquote? how do we fix this? what are you doing with it? unfortunately, i think it might be. do what's a cheaper tier? because, if anything you know, at least it at least test to see is part of this speak. you know, are people not coming to our service because of price? okay, well, let's lower the price. give this this tier. okay, cool, okay. so the numbers have only barely improved. now we know it's other stuff. granted, you and i, as people that watch a lot of you know on hbo max a fair amount, know that it's more the interface. there's certain 4k content missing. there's sometimes it's really hard to find stuff that you want to watch. stuff coming ongoing, yes, with no, no way for us to know why it's not there, why, like i remember them saying new mutants is going to be on hbo max, but they never told us when we told it. yeah, it is now, but you know it's so to me- for you and i, who use a lot of streaming services, it seems like a lot of better stuff to do, but from a marketing standpoint i can- i can kind of understand where they're coming from. it's not the best idea, but i mean it's it's cheaper. i still think the number one problem that hbo max has had from its inception- and it's an issue that they've waited too long to address, and i think it's one of the biggest problems for them- it comes down to the name. the name is confusing to a lot of people of, like some people had hbo. those people get transported and they get html max now, like they get lumped into that. but a lot of people that didn't have hbo are just going. well, i didn't have hbo before. how is this any different than that? how is that different than hbo now? or hbo go. i think people, a lot of people, um just assume that this is an extension of hbo, not realizing that it's an extension of warner brothers and so much more. if you called it warner plus or werner media all access or wb movies or something like that- wb entertainment, something that more people will know that this is an all-encompassing thing as opposed to a very niche thing of hbo, which is a big name in tv but a lot of people don't have hbo, they just borrow someone else's password. i've always thought hbl max was a bad name for a streaming service but, to be fair, peacock is a bad name for his streaming service but they've managed to overcome that. but in peacock's defense, people know that peacock means the nbc peacock and it's nbc programming. um rebranding is really, really important. i think it was a step in the right direction for paramount plus to rebrand from being cbs all access. now they just have to have content to reflect the name change because they're still very, very thin on content. um. but take like discovery plus: it's five bucks a month. people know what they're getting from that discovery channel programming. heather just got it recently. she watches that a lot. i watch shutter. i know what i get when i'm watching a app called shutter. it's horror stuff. hbo max: i think the name has been an issue the whole time. it's their single biggest issue and the sooner they address that i think they'll fix a lot of their problems, yeah, and to be frank, i mean we tok, we're toking about interface and stuff like that. netflix's interface has just is awful now too, because i can't, oh, yeah, it's so hard to. they only ever promote their own stuff. yeah, and, like you know what, i'm sorry, netflix, but not all your stuff is uh watchable. not a lot of it is no. so, um, yeah, it's hbo max is in a weird spot and i think sometimes we just put them on under a microscope because they're the ones that screwed over a bunch of directors and and production companies. so i mean, i don't know, man, justify your actions, you know.

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HBO Max Review Part 2: New, Cheaper Plan

since i last made my video review of hbo max, the streaming service has made some big changes. stay tuned to find out what those are. alrighty, everyone, thank you for tuning in to another episode of. shall i stream it? my name is matt and i'm your host. today i'm going to be toking about hbo max now. this is kind of a follow-up to the video review i did of hbo max a couple months ago is actually the very first video i made on this channel. lots of people watched it, lots of people liked it. but since i've made that video, there are some other things that i wanted to tok about that are important if you are looking at hbo max or thinking about signing up. so that's what this video is going to be about. if you like this video, as we're going along, make sure to give it a like and also subscribe to this channel for all things streaming. there's going to be some chapter times down in the description below if you want to skip ahead to anything, but without further ado, let's go ahead and get started. so the first big change that has happened to hbo max is that they now have a cheaper, ad supported option. they do have this handy dandy chart here on their website. i'll just kind of go through this. so their previous plan, which used to be their only one, is the ad free option. that one is still the same. it's going to be at 14.99 per month. now they have a different plan that is supported by ads and that is at 9.99 per month. so you save five bucks a month if you do the ad supported option. now i will point out that with their ads for some of their shows- like the ones that were on hbo proper, like game of thrones or sex in the city or things like that- basically shows that didn't originally have ads- those still don't have ads even if you have the ad supported option. it's just going to be those like acquired shows. you know, stuff like friends or the fresh prince of bel air, stuff like that, the sitcoms and things like that that originally had ads. those are the ones that are going to have, you know, the ad supported stuff going on, um, so you still get all of the same shows and series on. you know, both the ad supported and ad free plan. the main difference- and this is kind of a bummer- is, if you go with the cheaper option, that those- uh, same-day theatrical releases of the warner brothers movies are not available now. this is kind of, you know, a thing i've considered from a couple different angles. i mean number one: you've got, uh, the pandemic simmering down a little bit. the economy is reopening, a lot of people are going to be a lot more comfortable going to the movie theater. so i can see where, if you're planning on going to the movie theater, you aren't going to want to spend that extra five dollars a month and get those same day theatrical you know releases. for me, you know, with all the movies i see, it's worth it just to get that extra, you know, five dollars a month. that's cheaper than a movie tiket and uh, get, you know, access to those movies at home. but i can see where, if you're not watching all of those movies, this is going to be a better option for you. some of their extra features, like being able to download and watch movies on a mobile device, are only available on the more expensive option, as well as being able to stream in 4k. that is, only on the 14.99 per month option. um, so you know, you have fewer features, you don't have access to those same day theatrical releases and you've got ads, but you're saving five bucks a month, so you can kind of decide: um, you know what, what's going to be worth it for you? um, to me, that the same day theatrical releases is such a big selling point for me, it's such a bummer to see that it's not included with that. um. so i just i don't really see as much value with the ad sported plan, but if you're really on a budget and you want to save those five dollars, then this could be a good option for you. now they do have an option where you can save a little bit of money if you prepay. if you do a year of the ad sported option, that's going to be 99.99 per year, and if you do the ad free option, that's 149.99 per year. so the second thing to take note of is that hbmx, unfortunately, is still having some issues with bugs. now. when i first signed up for hbo max, i was on an amazon fire stik. this was right around the time that the very first opened up hbo max for amazon devices, um, and actually i had used it a little bit before- that, don't tell anyone, but there was like a way to like side load it onto amazon devices. so i did that for a while, um, but it was uh, kind of slow and buggy with the app. i wasn't too impressed with um some of the functionality which i noted in my original review. since then i haven't. i've upgraded to an apple tv device which, overall, i think is a lot better, a lot faster, has a lot smoother performance. i can stream in 4k. however, over the past few weeks with amazon devices- or not amazon, with apple devices, specifically hbo max- has had some significant problems. uh, you can see here we've got this. you know there's some press coverage over it. it just was a huge mess. i was trying to watch mayor of east town one day- and you know that's a show where you really don't want to have anything spoiled- and i was trying to like fast forward and rewind past this one part that i had wanted to like go back and watch, and when i did that, it skipped ahead to the next episode and it was like at a scene that was spoiling stuff and you know it was just super frustrating. um, and it made it almost unwatchable. if you wanted to, um, you know, fast forward, rewind, pause, any kind of thing besides, just play. they've, since, you know, as this artikle notes, they've released an update. so for me at least, that's fixed most of the problems. but it's just frustrating to see hbo max, with it being a more expensive streaming service, with them still continuing to have some of these issues. so i wish that's something that they could iron out a little bit more now. the third thing to take note of is, since i made that original review, the parent company for hbo, which is warner media, has merged together with discovery incorporated. discovery incorporated is the company that holds a bunch of different cable channels, like the discovery channel, hgtv, food network, and basically their two companies are going to merge together with the idea of their assets all coming together in one happy place. now we'll see, kind of, how that shakes out what. there's a regulatory stuff they have to go through, so it's gonna be probably about a year before we probably see any. you know, major things materialize. but looking ahead at the bigger picture, if you're looking at subscribing to hbo max over the long term, possibly getting that year-long subscription a year from now, you could also have discovery- uh, you know content on there. so if you like food network, if you like hdtv, you're most likely either going to see all of that merch together into one big happy streaming service. or you could see something where you've got a bundle, kind of like what disney does together with disney plus and hulu, where it's bundled together and you save money if you subscribe to both streaming services. now, of course, discovery does have their own streaming service right now which is called discovery plus. i've had a separate video and i'll have a link to that if you want to check that out. but you know, as we're going ahead, there's most likely going to be something a little bit different, so it'll be interesting to see what happens with that. so those are my main things, uh, main changes that have happened. with hbo max that's cheaper, you know plan, i think, is going to be a good option for a lot of people. for me, i'm just a big fan of having access to movies like in the heights or the suicide squad right in my home and not having to go to the movie theater. but if you are getting out to the movies more and you don't want to have to spend money on the movie theater and on hbo max, you don't mind having some ads. i can see where that 9.99 a month plan could be good for you. so, uh, which of these two plans have you?

Netflix Ads vs. No Ads (How Bad Are the Ads on Netflix?)

just how bad are the ads on Netflix's ad supported plan? we're a long time ad-free Netflix subscribers, but we tested the ad supported plan for about a month to see what the experience is like. yeah, if you're like us, you're always looking for easy ways to save money each month. switching to Netflix's ad supported plan can save you roughly three to thirteen dollars a month, depending on what plan you switch from at time of filming offers four plans: basic with ads for 6.99, basic for 9.99, standard for 15.49 and premium for 19.99 a month. features and video quality vary between the plans, but if you're currently on a basic subscription, most of the features will be the same. the only difference with your experience will be ads in the shows and movies you watch and no ability to download titles to watch offline. at least as of now, there are no ad supported versions of Netflix's higher price plans. that really is unfortunate, because one of the drawbacks we've notiked with the basic and basic with ads plans is the video quality. content streams in 720p, which can look grainy at times. we watched a variety of series and movies for about a month and kept track of how many ads we saw, how long they were and how many of them were unique over. overall, we have to say that, while the ads weren't terrible, there's definitely room for improvement. most of the time, the ads were unique and we hadn't seen them on other streaming services, and they rarely repeated and they seemed to make sense on most occasions. however, if you're used to watching Netflix without ads, you're going to find them disruptive. this was one of the concerns raised prior to the launch of AD supported Netflix. how do you insert ad breaks into shows that weren't designed with them in mind? overall, the ad breaks felt like an intrusion into the show or movie we were watching. they definitely disrupted the flow of the story and it was hard to predict any kind of pattern. to help us figure out how many ads to expect in shows we watched, which was different from HBO Max, for instance, when we tested how bad the ads were on that streaming service, we found them significantly better than what we experienced with Netflix. as we discussed in our video on HBO Max with ads, there were no ads in HBO Originals. that included series like Game of Thrones, Westworld, Euphoria and Sopranos. there also were a number of movies that didn't have ads in them. Netflix, on the other hand, put ads in everything, including its own content. we watched a variety of shows across genres and found that everything started with 30 seconds of ads, but after that it varied somewhat. stranger things. for instance, had three outbreaks of 70 seconds each. manifest had one 30 second ad at the beginning and three ad breaks of 75 seconds each. there's a countdown timer in the top right that tells you how many ads you're going to see and how long the ad break will be for the Watcher had two ad breaks of 70 seconds each. Orange is the New Black, which is a Netflix original series, had three ad breaks of 75 seconds each. interestingly, Enola homes 2, a Netflix original movie, had no breaks. Netflix had said to expect to see four to five minutes of ads per hour, depending on the title you're watching, and generally that pretty much bore out. but if you're used to watching Netflix without ads, like we are, the price break may not be worth it. we found we really prefer not having our content interrupted on Netflix. and there are a few other things to know about the basic with ads option. there won't be ads in his profile and those and movies won't be available to watch with the basic with ads planned. because of Licensing restrictions, unavailable titles will have a lock icon in the upper right corner. an example of that comes with the secret of the Greco family. as you can see, when you select that title, a message pops up encouraging you to switch to a higher priced plan. during our trial, we found a number of titles were locked and Netflix says it's actively working to remove or reduce lock titles. however, as the Wall Street Journal reported, Netflix has been haggling with studios around licensing since the summer. Disney, Comcast, NBC Universal, Sony, Warner Brothers, Discovery and Lionsgate have all been pushing back against Netflix on allowing ads in their content. because of that, shows those Studios control, like Gray's Anatomy, how to get away with murder you, the crown, co-work high and Breaking Bad are some of the shows you can't watch right now with the ad supported plan. Netflix says 10 to 15 percent of the content on its platform is currently behind a lock on the ad supported plan. part of the reason for the stall is that Netflix is charging advertisers a premium- around 65 dollars per thousand viewers- but it isn't yet offering sophistikated targeting. so advertisers have been reluctant to pay that price and Studios want a cut of the money Netflix is going to be getting from advertisers for their content. it's just something we're going to have to continue to watch and, in the meantime, something for streamers to keep in mind as they consider signing up for commercials on Netflix. so you can always bump up to a higher plan at any time, though, as we found, you can only switch to a lower price plan once per billing period. overall, we think HBO Max is doing the best job among streaming services with its ad plan. as we discussed in our HBO Max versus Netflix review video, HBO Max will be an excellent model for Netflix and even Disney plus to follow as it rolls out its own ad supported plan. smart streaming services will follow HBO Max's model because it's better for everyone and it preserves the Integrity of the best content on the platform by running it ad-free. Netflix says it's partnering with Microsoft and working with advertisers to reach the Right audience with relevant ads by offering targeting capabilities by country and content genre, but after losing subscribers and seeing its Share value drop earlier in 2022, it rushed to get an ad supported plan to Market ahead of rival streamer Disney plus. that quickness means that right now, advertisers can only target their ads based on very basic demographics like age, gender and overall popularity of content in a given country. hopefully, over the next year, Netflix will refine its targeting capabilities to give advertisers the opportunity to serve up ads based on specific shows we watch and Achieve even greater relevance, and hopefully it will stop putting ads in its Marquee titles or at least keep the ads to before content only on those titles. as long as it can keep its commitment to four to five minutes an hour and continue to show a variety of ads with low repeat, add supported Netflix should improve over time. yeah, and when those ad pods interrupt your show awkwardly, it ends up making you remember the brands and resent them. it's not good for streamers, advertisers or streaming services to see our take on what ads are like across popular live TV streaming services. watch our review video on that topic. it's not possible to avoid ads on live TV, but some Services include more of them than others. so if ads really bother you, it's something to consider. yeah, and if you absolutely cannot stand ads, it's best for you to stik with ad-free Netflix, but if you want to save three dollars a month, ad supporting Netflix could would be worth a try. well, that does it for this video. what do you think about Netflix offering an ad supported plan. what streaming service do you think is the worst with ads? will you pay extra to avoid commercials? let us know in the comments below, and if you haven't already, don't forget to like, subscribe and turn on notifications so you can get all our latest news and reviews when they drop. and if you know someone who would enjoy this video, share it with them. thanks for watching and we'll see you in our next video.

These Big Changes Are Coming to HBO Max and Discovery Plus!

it's been a few months since warner brothers discovery launched and we're learning a whole lot more about the big changes coming to hbmx and discovery plus. let's get into it. we already knew hbo max and discovery plus would combine into a single service. i told you about that news back in march. during an investor call in august, we learned that the new service will launch in the us in the summer of 2023- about a year from now. no name or details on the pricing just yet, but company executives confirmed there will be an ad free version and also an ad lite version, similar to what hbo max and discovery plus offer right now. a big priority for warner brothers discovery executives is reducing the churn rate. that's why these two services are going to be combining in the first place. the way they see it, hbo max is a service with scripted programming that will attract subscribers. it was referred to as appointment tv on this call. and then you have discovery plus, which was described as comfort viewing that retained subscribers. there's a lot of time between now and next summer, but some changes are happening in the interim and we got confirmation of those changes on this call. first up, discovery plus: we'll be adding a cnn hub with original series and films and hbo max is going to host some magnolia content from chip and joanna gaines. maybe you read that warner brothers discovery decided to shelve the batgirl film it was set to launch on hbo max ceo. david zaslav explained that move on the call. he said expensive direct-to-streaming movies do not compare to theatrical releases. we cannot find an economic value for it. so here's what that means going forward. zazlaf said he plans to focus on creating quality films, not quantity, and then releasing those films in theaters first before they show up on a streaming service. throughout this call, warner brothers discovery seemed very focused on cutting costs and after all, zasa have promised investors three billion dollars in savings. executives also mentioned challenges related to the economy, like inflation and a possible recession. those executives emphasize that streaming is just one component of the business and during the q a session someone asked them about the linear tv decline, that's, the cable tv networks. saslev said people are still tuning in, especially for sports and also for news, and he expects it to be a very good business for many, many years to come. we'll see if he's right. we also got a warning about discounted pricing, those deals that all of us, like one executive on the call explained a shift away from heavily discounted promos to a more balanced approach that optimizes revenue and subscribers. so, in other words, expect fewer deals. i've heard this before from other companies, but less than a month ago discovery plus was offering two months of service for 99 cents a month. of course, i'll keep you posted on any deals in the future. and in addition to the combined hbo max and discovery plus service, we also learned about a potential free streaming service that's in the works. warner brothers discovery says it's exploring a free ad supported service and if it launches, it would offer different content compared to the premium offering and would be a way to upsell people to the combined premium service. thanks for watching.