Max Disses Ad-Supported Viewers, YouTube Pushes Its Channel Store Hard
1. Max Disses Ad-Supported Viewers
Just ahead of a not very pretty earnings call that saw $1.9 billion in losses just for Q4 2024, the company Evan Shapiro refers to as “Disco Bros” announced a puzzling move for a company that seems to want to grow its ad-supported streaming business.
As of March 30, 2025, neither the live feed of CNN or “B/R” (Bleacher Reports) will be available to subscribers of Max’s ad-supported tier. Meaning that in order to keep either of those services, ad-supported users will need to upgrade from the basic $10/month tier to the ad-free $17/month tier.
In the old days we called that “bait-and-switch.”
Why It Matters
Max, like all of its streaming brethren not-named-Amazon, has an issue with getting viewers, American viewers in particular, to switch to its ad-supported product.
Given that HBO is still the app’s flagship product, that task is even harder because viewers have associated HBO with “no ads” for over 40 years.
What’s more, HBO series do not have commercial breaks written into the scripts the way network series do, so ad breaks can often feel forced and awkward.
And the price differential between the ad-free and ad-support tiers—$7/month, or $5.83/month on a yearly subscription—was not really enough of a savings to convince anyone other than a casual viewer to switch to the ad-supported tier. Granted, $7 is still a not insubstantial sum to many people, but if WBD wants ad-supported Max to (a) become an actual profit center and (b) gain a big enough audience to actually be valuable to advertisers, it’s going to need to make it a more attractive offering.
I cannot stress the importance of this last point.
Advertisers are both excited to reach the audiences for zeitgeist-defining shows like The White Lotus, while simultaneously fearful that much of the ad-supported audience consists of a bunch of low-rent cheapskates, not the sort of affluent, forward-thinking trendmeisters they are looking to reach.
This is not just a Max issue—it’s an issue for the other SVOD services as well, Netflix in particular, given that company’s struggles with launching an ad-supported tier.
Max seemed to have found a solution: throwing in the live feed of CNN plus Bleacher Reports sports content made the ad-supported tier a very attractive product. CNN had ads regardless of what tier it is in, as do sporting events, so if watching either of these was your main reason to subscribe, the ad-supported tier was a very attractive offer.
I get why they would want to make both CNN and B/R more premium, but it would seem there are better ways to do that. Plus, it’s a very bad move to take away a privilege from consumers. That’s just customer service 101, i.e., don’t start charging for shipping unless you’re doing something else to make up for it.
Here, WBD could have offered current ad-supported subscribers some sort of grandfather clause deal for the ad-free service. Or, better still, let those subs pay a little extra to still get CNN and/or B/R on their ad-supported plan.
Because I will guarantee you that many, if not most of them will only realize they no longer have access to CNN when they try and watch it for the first time in April. And they will be unhappy about it and feel that WBD is extorting them and forcing them to a higher-priced plan.
Which is just about the last thing you want.
What You Need To Do About It
If you are WBD, I would definitely give your current Basic (ad-supported) tier subscribers a lower price to gain access to CNN and B/R. Or just let them keep one without jacking up the price.
If nothing else, you’ll get more eyeballs for your ads and you’ll dull some of the pain they’re going to feel when they realize that their $10/month subscription no longer includes not just one but both services. Especially since I am guessing many of them signed up because of that access.
If you are one of the other streaming services: watch and learn so you can avoid making these sorts of unforced errors.
2. YouTube Pushes Its Channel Store Hard
So I logged onto YouTube the other day on my phone and was greeted with the following advertisement for their channel store.
This was a surprise given that 9 times out of 10, I am greeted with a plea to subscribe to YouTube TV or Premium YouTube. It was, in fact, the first time I’d ever seen YouTube acknowledge the existence of its channel store.
Which, given the amount of YouTube viewing taking place on an actual television set these days, had me wondering what took them so long.
Why It Matters
A channel store, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a form of bundling. It allows viewers to manage all of their various subscriptions through a single interface, under the aegis of a single vendor. Roku and Amazon were the pioneers, but others have joined the fray.
It makes sense on many levels.
For apps, it’s someone else to sell their product and manage the billing and CRM (customer relationship management) cycle.
For the channel store owners, it’s a way to create added stickiness and to make some extra scratch. (They get a cut of every transaction.)
For the user, it’s a way to simplify their personal subscription management as well as their user experience—channel store content gets mixed in with the app’s main content right on the home screen. So, for instance, any services you subscribe to via Amazon’s channel store show up on your Prime Video home screen.
In other words, a win all around.
For YouTube it seems to be the path to an even bigger win: if millions of people are tuning in to watch YouTube on their TVs, why not give them actual TV to watch too.
Paramount+, as I mentioned last week, has the third most streamed show in the country in Landman, as well as a well-rounded library of CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and other much loved shows.
Throw all that onto someone else’s home screen along with their favorite podcasts and creators, and they might never leave.
What You Need To Do About It
If you are Google, avoid GMS: Google Magpie Syndrome. That’s where you focus on the newest bright shiny object for a few months and then flit on to the next thing, leaving the initial object of your attention to wither and die. Remember Google+? The OG Chromecast device?
So focus on this TV thing. Try to bring more services into the channel store. Create a TV-centric interface.
You announced this week that you were trying to make midroll ads more palatable by having them occur at more natural break points. That’s great, but that should have been table stakes. Not something you pat yourself on the back for.
Meaning if you are going to be a serious TV player, you need to act like one.
If you are one of the other streaming services, I’d take a very hard look at what YouTube is promising before committing to any sort of channel store agreement with them. Get some commitments in writing. Make sure you know their game plan. This is especially true given that it is Google—if you are Netflix or Disney, do you want to give them control over your billing strategy, let alone your customers relationships and data?
If you are a big YouTube viewer and you don’t like switching out the app to watch TV, this could be a smart move for you. It will definitely change the nature of your YouTube experience, but that might not be a bad thing.
Plus, it’s always reversible.
Just expect a daily dose of “resubscribe” ads if you do,
