With Max, its rollup of HBO Max and Discovery Plus, launching Tuesday, Warner Bros. Discovery put out a late-game announcement justifying the existence of its new $20-a-month "Ultimate Ad-Free" tier.
Not only will the package allow four simultaneous streams, it will bump the amount of 4K/UHD content eightfold vs. the incumbent $16-a-month premium edition of HBO Max, delivering more than a thousand movies and TV series episodes in 4K display resolution.
According to WBD, the 4K content includes Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy and the Matrix films.
“We understand the value of offering our users a cinematic playback experience and to that end, we’ve implemented more advanced technology workflows that allow us to release more 4K content in a faster, more efficient way,” said Sudheer Sirivara, executive VP of WBD's global technology platform, in a statement.
It's unclear if the $16-a-month ad-free version of Max will eventually become totally bereft of 4K programming. WBD said that current HBO Max subscribers will still have access to their current plan features for at least six months after the launch of Max.
