Warner Bros. Discovery to stream MLB playoff games on Max service

Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it will launch a new sports tier for its streaming platform during the Major League Baseball playoffs. WBD, which was born from the merger of WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) and Discovery, will begin to stream live postseason games on its Max service.

CNBC's Alex Sherman reported that WBD hopes to eventually stream games from other leagues and organizations it currently has broadcasting rights agreements with - the NBA, NHL and the NCAA for its men's basketball tournament. Sherman also says that the company is considering charging extra for the sports tier on Max. Currently, the ad-supported tier costs $9.99 for Max subscribers and the ad-free tier costs $15.99.

The games that stream on Max ideally won't be exclusive to the platform, per Sherman. They are likely to carry the linear broadcasts from TBS, the longtime home of MLB. This differs from some of the broadcasts of US Soccer matches that debuted on Max in January, as a couple of friendly matches involving the women's national team were exclusive to the platform.

Something notable in the report is that the streaming sports will go under the Bleacher Report banner. Bleacher Report was bought by Time Warner in 2012, effectively replacing the venerated Sports Illustrated as the company's sports journalism home. After revamping Bleacher Report as more than an open blogging platform to become a destination for beat reporters and columnists, Time Warner launched B/R Live as a subscription-based live streaming service for select programming under the Turner Sports umbrella in 2018. B/R Live was home of pay-per-view events from All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and "The Match," the now-annual, made-for-TV match golf event. However, B/R Live was shut down in 2021.

Max was formerly HBO Max, the streaming service that then-WarnerMedia launched in late May 2020. The service not only offered current-at-the-time HBO programming such as "Game of Thrones" and "Insecure," but also offered nearly everything owned by WarnerMedia, including the full HBO and Cinemax catalogue, DC Comics, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, and a vast film library. Under WBD, some programming from the Discovery family of networks was added to Max while HBO-related shows were pulled as part of the company's push to address some of its financial concerns.