Ads On HBO? Max Looks To Become Much More Than That As It Gains Commercial Traction

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: After corporate maneuvers, a global pandemic and labor unrest, the wheels of streaming commerce are finally starting to turn for Max.

The Warner Bros. Discovery streaming service introduced an ad tier in 2021, when it was known as HBO Max and owned by AT&T’s WarnerMedia, only to re-approach the ad business in earnest in early 2023.

About a year into the effort and the rebrand to Max, there are clear signs of traction, with the service due to be center stage Wednesday at the company’s upfront presentation to ad buyers in New York. “We’re total babies with this part of the business,” JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, enthused to Deadline in an interview. “But we’re finding that we’re very well-positioned in the marketplace when you look at streaming prices going up and consumer sensitivity to price.” Internationally, he noted, Max’s ad tier has reached more than 40 countries and will see a handful of crucial ones added to the roster over the next year when Sky distribution deals elapse in the UK, Italy and Germany.

Ryan Gould, Head of Digital Ad Sales for WBD, whose tenure at the company includes the period when HBO Max launched, said the advertising effort has “definitely come a long way.” What has remained consistent about it through all of its iterations, he said, is “the emphasis on really preserving an ultra-premium user experience with really unique ad executions … and understanding that the viability of the platform is really predicated on the cultural relevance and premium nature of the content.” Noting that the service averages just four minutes of commercial time per hour, Perrette said, “There’s a reason we call it ad-lite.” Asked about the current scale of the ad tier,