AT&T announces HBO Max streaming service, with a variety of networks and ‘Friends’

WarnerMedia has been prepping its own standalone streaming service for quite some time, and now we know what it will be called and what it will offer when it launches to the public in 2020.

Thanks to a report from CNBC, we know the new streaming service from AT&T’s WarnerMedia will be called HBO Max, and it will offer access to a variety of content from a handful of big-named networks. Unfortunately, there is no word on pricing just yet, but we do know it will launch in the spring of 2020.

As for networks, HBO Max will include Warner Bros., New Line, CNN, TNT, DC Entertainment, The CW, TruTV, TBS, Cartoon Network & Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Rooster Teeth, Crunchyroll, and episodes of Looney Toons.

On top of all that, HBO Max will also be the go-to streaming location for the hit show Friends, which is currently streaming on Netflix (which paid upwards of $80 million to keep the show around for another year). The Fresh Prince of Bel-AirBatwoman, and Pretty Little Liars will also be available on HBO Max.

The new streaming service will also be the home of new original content, including Dune: The SisterhoodTokyo ViceLove Life, and many others.

The streaming content market is packed, and only getting worse (or better, depending on how you look at it) on a regular basis. Already there is Netflix, Hulu (now primarily owned by Disney), Amazon Prime, and many, many others. With AT&T offering up yet another option, where there will be plenty of walled-off content accessible only on that platform, it just means forking over even more on a regular basis. And we certainly can’t forget about Disney+, which will be a juggernaut of a service once it goes live.

https://youtu.be/LCS4CaZ9dwg

And then there’s Apple TV+, which Apple will launch later this year. Apple is leaning heavily into original content in this move, though, and won’t be offering shows or movies from other production companies. Whether or nor that will work out for Apple remains to be seen, but the content that the company does have coming down the pipe does seem interesting, at the very least.

So, HBO Max will arrive in the spring of next year for an unknown amount of money every month. With the available networks and content, do you think you’ll be signing up once the service goes live?