The streaming bundles just keep bundling. But now there’s a brand new kind of bundle coming to us. This time, a linear/traditional TV platform is bundling with a streamer. Yes, in the newest deal between Charter Communications‘ Spectrum TV and Warner Bros. Discovery, Spectrum TV customers will receive the Max streaming service at no extra cost.
Details of the deal further reveal that Spectrum TV customers will receive an ad-supported version of Max, which includes HBO and MAX content, and they will also receive Discovery+. David Zaslav notes, “This innovative partnership with Charter recognizes the value of our linear content and the investments we’ve made in premium original programming, sports and news, while also significantly expanding the distribution of Max’s ad-supported service to Spectrum’s millions of Select customers.” It’s definitely an interesting move.
The fate of linear TV and streaming TV has been shaky for a while. Not too long ago, it seemed that linear TV would be replaced by streaming. But, of course, streaming has been undergoing intense shifts and shenanigans as well. The glut of streaming channels has made maintaining all of them very expensive to the consumer. And streamers are finding their audiences tapped out. So, naturally, streamers began exploring bundles, which essentially make streaming and cable/linear/traditional TV one and the same. The “innovation” of a bundle that combines streaming and linear TV, as we see in this Spectrum TV and Max deal, makes this all the more salient. Perhaps the demise of linear TV was greatly exaggerated.
For our part, we just want the next change to be for the best of the consumers. It seems like neither streaming nor linear TV quite has the answer at the moment. But we guess it’s good news for Spectrum TV customers who love Max… today, anyway. Hopefully, this messy landscape will find its way.