HBO Max ’s long-delayed Friends reunion is finally set to land early Thursday morning, exactly a year later than it was originally supposed to …
HBO Max ’s long-delayed Friends reunion is finally set to land early Thursday morning, exactly a year later than it was originally supposed to come out. It’s the latest in a series of developments building momentum for HBO Max after a bumpy launch a year ago. Following the Friends reunion premiere will be next week’s arrival of Max’s cheaper $10-a-month subscription tier supported by ads — and the movie In the Heights, streaming as soon as it hit theaters, arrives not long after that. But HBO Max has killed its weeklong free trial. That means if you want to stream the Friends reunion, other Max originals or any of the Warner Bros. movies on its 2021 slate — including Matrix 4 or Dune later this year — you’ll either need to pay for a Max subscription or figure out if your regular HBO subscription includes a free upgrade to a Max account. That less expensive, ad-supported version of HBO Max, coming to the US next week, will add commercials to its programming in exchange for a $5 discount to its now $15-a-month subscription price. The new tier is missing a big draw, however: It won’t have any of those new Warner Bros. movies when they first come out. If you want to stream those films, you have to subscribe to the pricier, ad-free level. The cheaper tier will have the Friends reunion, though, and the $10-a-month option should become available within days of the Friends‘ special’s premiere. HBO Max hasn’t confirmed the cheaper tier’s exact launch date yet, but it’s expected midweek, which would put it sometime around June 1-3. Here are answers to some of the latest big questions about HBO Max. The special, which reunites the cast to reflect on the sitcom, will premiere on Thursday; it’s supposed to become available to stream at 12:01 a.m. PT/3:01 a.m. ET. It’s… not on a channel. The Friends reunion is only on HBO Max, which is a streaming service that doesn’t have any channel on regular TV or cable. However, HBO Max’s owner, WarnerMedia, is experimenting with putting some other HBO Max originals on channels like TBS and TNT over the summer, a strategy it’s calling Front Row. The Friends Reunion Special isn’t among them, and WarnerMedia hasn’t even hinted that the Friends reunion would widen to regular TV in this way (or in any other way). But Front Row does set some precedent for other HBO Max exclusives widening to regular TV channels. The Friends reunion special will be available to stream on Max indefinitely. In other words, you don’t need to worry about missing it. As a so-called Max Original, it’s supposed to persist on HBO Max for the foreseeable future. It’s easy to get confused, though. The „same-day“ movies that hit Max and theaters simultaneously are only available to stream for 31 days. But that’s unique to the Warner Bros. new movie releases in 2021. The Friends reunion isn’t subject to the same limitation. Not anymore. HBO Max eliminated its standard one-week free trial in December. But it does occasionally offer promotions and bundling deals. (See the next section.) Some people who already have an existing subscription to HBO are able to unlock HBO Max at no extra cost, but not everyone. Nearly 200,000 regular HBO subscribers in the US aren’t eligible for an HBO Max upgrade; it all depends on which company provides your regular HBO subscription. But many HBO Max distributors unlock an HBO Max upgrade at no extra cost for current HBO and legacy HBO Now customers, thanks to deals HBO Max struck with them. You qualify for the HBO Max upgrade at no extra cost if you already pay for HBO through the following: If you previously paid for an HBO streaming subscription through Roku (that is, through The Roku Channel), you need to cancel that subscription and then sign up for HBO Max itself to be able to access Max. HBO Max is $15 a month. It doesn’t have a free trial, but the company occasionally offers discounts if you prepay for an extended period of time. For example, before launch, people who preordered the service at HBOMax.com unlocked a discount deal that lowered the price to $13 a month for the first year. Some customers can also hunt out specialized free trials, sometimes linked to the purchase of a television or other tech product.
