AT&T Set to Bring HBO Max Back to Wireless Plans

December 4, 2023 Eli Blumenthal

James Martin/CNET

    AT&T will be bringing HBO Max back to its wireless plans. After pulling the streaming service from its priciest unlimited plan in June, the telecom giant and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they have reached a new deal to allow AT&T to offer HBO Max to its wireless and home internet users.?
    “AT&T continues to be an important partner and we are thrilled that HBO Max will continue to be part of AT&T internet and mobility plans,” said Scott Miller, executive vice president of distribution for Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a press release. “It has always been our goal to deliver an unparalleled entertainment experience with as many subscribers as possible and the return of HBO Max to AT&T plans ensures that even more people will have access to HBO Max’s world-class and award-winning content.”
    The news comes nearly two months after AT&T pulled HBO Max from its then top-tier Unlimited Elite plan. As part of its restructuring of wireless plans, AT&T dropped the Elite option entirely. It instead rebranded its priciest unlimited plan to Unlimited Premium and began offering 50GB of hotspot data (10GB more than what Elite had).?
    Those who already have Unlimited Elite, or other AT&T plans that bundle HBO, will still be able to continue to use the streaming service even with today’s new agreement.?
    It is unclear when AT&T would restart offering HBO Max with its wireless plans or home internet options. It also remains to be seen which version of HBO Max is offered and if AT&T expands the bundling to lower-tier unlimited plans. AT&T bundled in HBO Max’s $15-per-month ad-free service with the Unlimited Elite plan but included HBO Max’s cheaper ad-supported tier with an unlimited plan offered by its Cricket prepaid service.?
    The press release for the agreement notes that the new deal gives AT&T “flexibility in how it delivers the service to customers.”
    In addition to sorting out which version of HBO Max is offered and with which plans, it is similarly not immediately known what might happen when Warner Bros. Discovery combines HBO Max with Discovery Plus. It was announced on Thursday that the merger of the two streaming services is?set to take place next summer.?