HBO Max With Ads is Here and These are Its Missing Features

To kick off a new month, HBO has gone ahead and launched the HBO Max With Ads version of its premium service. Confirmed last month to arrive in June, you can go ahead and sign-up for this more affordable plan, but understand that it is lacking a number of big features.

For $9.99/mo instead of $14.99/mo you would pay for the Ad-free HBO Max, you certainly get a lot of great content, only with ads sprinkled in. HBO says to expect “thousands” of series, movies, and exclusive originals, like HBO has always given you. You’ll find a curated kids’ experience with parental controls, 5 profiles for a personalized household setup, and HD quality streams.

Unfortunately, there are cuts that you might not want to deal with in addition to advertisements. For one, all of the big Warner Bros. movies that are scheduled to release on HBO Max throughout this year on the same day as theaters will only be available in the ad-free tier. The “With Ads” HBO Max won’t have access. Additionally, you won’t be able to download content for offline viewing and you are limited to the HD quality I mentioned above, while the ad-free tier gets up to 4K.

And speaking of advertisements, HBO says to expect about 4 minutes of ads per 1 hour of content watched. The frequency and type of ad will depend on the movie or series you are watching. You will see them both before and during content. As you probably guessed, you cannot skip them.

To be honest, no ads, access to new movies released in theaters, 4K streams, and offline viewing is probably worth the extra $5. You tell me, though.

To sign-up for HBO Max With Ads, head over to the HBO Max site.