AT&T used to own Warner Media, which in turn owns HBO and its associated streaming services, but AT&T completed its sale of Warner to Discovery earlier this year. Now we're seeing the first real-world effects of the deal: no more free Game of Thrones for AT&T unlimited subscribers.
AT&T previously offered an 'Unlimited Elite' plan for $50/line (with four lines) that bundled a subscription to HBO Max, the current streaming service from Warner (now Warner Bros Discovery) that includes Game of Thrones, DC's Peacemaker, Succession, Westworld, and many other popular shows and films. Unlimited Premium also offered unlimited talk, text, and data, along with 40 GB of hotspot data and six months of Google Stadia Pro access.
However, as originally spotted by NextTV, AT&T has replaced 'Unlimited Elite' with 'Unlimited Premium'. It's almost exactly identical to the earlier plan, with the same pricing, but HBO Max access is no longer included. In its place, AT&T has bumped the hotspot data amount from 40 GB to 50 GB.
AT&T isn't removing HBO Max from existing Unlimited Elite customers, but it's not an option anymore for new subscribers (or anyone switching plans). AT&T told NextTV in a statement, ""HBO Max is a great service, but we constantly experiment with the features we offer our customers to give them the best value."
Cricket, the pre-paid mobile network owned by AT&T, still offers HBO Max with advertisements (which usually costs $10/mo) with its unlimited data plan. Meanwhile, T-Mobile still includes access to Netflix with some of its plans, and some Verizon plans include the 'Disney Bundle' (Disney+, Hulu with ads, and ESPN+).
Via: NextTV