Dish Network and WarnerMedia have settled their differences and agreed an HBO and HBO Max deal, although the agreement won’t benefit Sling TV subscribers yet. Sling’s live TV service remains one of the few that doesn’t offer HBO or HBO Max and it currently remains unclear if that is likely to change soon, even after the deal.
Sling TV launched back in 2015, which in live TV streaming years, is a long time ago. Soon after the service launched, it also made HBO available as a premium network that could be added to the channel lineup. A lot has happened since then, including HBO becoming HBO Max and HBO being removed from Dish Network’s video services. Sling TV was one of those services affected.
Today, Dish Network announced it has reached an agreement with AT&T’s WarnerMedia to bring back HBO and add HBO Max to Dish TV plans. The deal also sees Cinemax becoming available as well. However, in spite of Sling TV being owned by Dish, and affected by the same dispute, HBO and HBO Max continue to remain unavailable through the live TV streaming service.
To help lure customers to HBO Max, Dish TV subscribers will be able to watch a free preview of the service between August 6 and 15, and can also sign up to the ad-free version for 12 months at $12 per month, a saving of $3 per month compared to the usual cost of HBO Max. Dish TV subscribers have up until October 27, 2021, to lock in the cheaper HBO Max rate.
The announcement did not specifically reference Sling TV, so it is possible that a separate announcement could be made in the future. However, that is depending on a deal being done to include Sling TV. As of right now, there are no indications that has happened.
While AT&T already offers its own live TV streaming service, things have been changing on that front as well, with the service likely to be rebranded in the future. Regardless, AT&T has never been against letting competing services offer HBO, and even following the Max relaunch. YouTube TV subscribers, for example, can add HBO to their subscription and access Max content using TV Everywhere support. Likewise, Hulu Live TV subscribers can largely do the same thing.
Source: Dish (PR Newswire)
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