In this week’s edition of Five on Friday, T-Mobile extends its partnership with MLB, offering customers a free subscription to MLB.TV through 2028. Also, axed HBO shows are now on Roku, HBO Max goes through a rebrand, the U.S. Postal Service files for a price hike starting in July, and Spotify sunsets Spotify Live, Spotify’s answer to audio app Clubhouse.

T-Mobile extends partnership with MLB

T-Mobile celebrated with a bang last week when they announced their continued partnership with MLB. In the T-Mobile app, the wireless carrier announced that customers could redeem a free subscription to MLB.TV through 2028. Qualifying customers can redeem their subscription in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app starting March 28, according to the landing page for the offer.

MLB.TV regularly costs $149.99 per year. The service allows sports fans to watch every 2023 out-of-market regular-season game live or on-demand. Sports fans can also watch their in-market regular season games on demand. The annual subscription tier offers viewers savings over the single team option, which costs $129.99 per year, and that tier only gives them access to one team.

“T-Mobile and MLB are embarking on a six-year journey to deliver breakthrough fan experiences, and it’s all thanks to our leading 5G network. We’re enhancing the game on and off the field to give fans across the country even more ways to enjoy the game we all love – on top of showing our customers love with free MLB.TV,” Mike Sievert said in a press release.

Along with Major League Baseball, viewers will now be able to stream minor league games for the first time within the app, Engadget shared. In addition to the partnership, T-Mobile will include a little-league sponsorship that will lead to the wireless carrier donating millions of dollars of equipment and grants to first-time baseball players. Another way T-Mobile is enhancing the fan experience includes their plan to expand their 5G coverage in baseball stadiums, which will lead them to more immersive experiences for fans, as well as enhanced in-stadium speeds and reception.

While the time to sign up has officially closed, T-Mobile said that more customers had redeemed the deal than ever, TechCrunch reported. With their partnership with MLB extended through 2028, the deal may be offered again.

Axed HBO shows now on Roku

Those who were bummed about HBO Originals getting wiped from HBO Max can breathe easy, but only if they’re Roku users. The Roku Channel has added 14 new channels to show TV shows and movies from Warner Brothers’ content library, TechCrunch said. The announcement comes after a deal was reached earlier this year, allowing both Roku and Tubi to license 2,000 hours of content.

HBO Originals like Raised by Wolves and Westworld, as well as the network’s reality content,will now have a home on Roku and Tubi’s newly licensed channels. The new channels all focus on different areas, dubbed WB At The Movies, WB TV Watchlist, WB How To, and more. All fourteen channels are ad-supported.

Along with HBO content, Discovery content will also be shared, Engadget reported. Both Roku and Tubi will gain content like The Bachelor, Cake Boss, Say Yes to the Dress, and more Discovery content.

Roku and Tubi will pay WB licensing fees, Gizmodo shared. Licensing their content to ad-supported channels will give Warner Bros Discovery another stream of revenue which they may need after their net loss of $2.1B at the end of last year.

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HBO Max rebrands, adds content and shares pricing

The timing of the move to ad-supported channels for HBO content is interesting, as HBO Max and Discovery+ are just about to merge into Max, the renamed brand for HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery announced the name change, so that it better represents the new mix of content from HBO, Discovery+ and new original series, reports Variety. Viewers can access Max at Max.com as well as on supported devices (e.g., phones, tablets, computers, TVs, streaming players, game consoles, etc.), starting May 23. HBO Max subscribers will automatically get access to Max.

“Max brings all the iconic programming that you love about HBO Max together with an even deeper library of crave-worthy genres like true crime, reality, food, comedy, and more – all for the same great price,” said Max on the new website.

Max offers three plans for new subscribers:

• Max Ad-Lite: ad-supported; $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (16% savings); stream in full HD on two devices simultaneously
• Max Ad Free: no ads; $15.99 a month or $149.99 a year (over 20% savings); stream in full HD on two devices simultaneously and up to 30 offline downloads
• Max Ultimate Ad Free: no ads; $19.99 a month or $199.99 a year (over 16% savings); stream in 4K UHD on 4 devices simultaneously and up to 100 offline downloads.

Variety reports that the Max Ultimate tier will include an expanded catalog of 4K UHD content, including popular series like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and The Dark Knight Trilogy.

“Max is the one to watch,” said David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, during the official announcement.

USPS files notice with PRC for July rate increases

On April 10, the U.S. Postal Service filed a notice of increased rates with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The new rates will go into effect July 9. USPS said they are raising prices to offset inflation and the “defective pricing model” they were working with. They also contend that their prices are among the “most affordable in the world.” If the Postal Regulatory Commission approves the rate increases, they will be as follows:

“As operating expenses fueled by inflation continue to rise and the effects of a previously defective pricing model are still being felt, these price adjustments are needed to provide the Postal Service with much needed revenue to achieve the financial stability sought by its Delivering for America 10-year plan. The prices of the U.S. Postal Service remain among the most affordable in the world,” said USPS in an April 10 news release.

In addition to these price increases, the USPS is seeking price adjustments for other products including:

• Certified mail
• Post office Box rental fees
• Money order fees
• Insurance for mailed items

News/Media Alliance noted that pricing for periodicals and marketing mail, which may impact subscription companies, will also increase. The average rate increases are as follows:

• Periodicals outside county: 8.080% increase
• Periodicals within county: 8.811% increase
• Marketing Mail HD-Saturation Flats/Parcels: 3.071%

News/Media Alliance provided comments to the USPS in January and will do so again prior to the PRC’s decision.

The complete list of proposed July 2023 price changes can be accessed on the USPS website.

Spotify sunsets Spotify Live

Spotify is sunsetting their live audio app, Spotify Live. They launched the app less than two years ago under the name Greenroom and built it in response to the success of the app Clubhouse. To help expand the app, they acquired the service Betty Labs for $67.7 million. However, the app has a new tune now: closure.

“After a period of experimentation and learnings around how Spotify users interact with live audio, we’ve made the decision to sunset the Spotify Live app. We believe there is a future for live fan-creator interactions in the Spotify ecosystem; however, based on our learnings, it no longer makes sense as a standalone app. We have seen promising results in the artist-focused use case of ‘listening parties,’ which we will continue to explore moving forward to facilitate live interactions between artists and fans,” Spotify said in an email.

Late last year, Spotify cancelled six live audio shows and had scheduled to keep The Fantasy Footballers going through the next three NFL seasons. However, the app wasn’t doing well as a whole, having only 10,000 app downloads and generated less than $5,000 in revenue in November.

What remains of the app are a few chat rooms, and a notice that the app will go away at the end of April, The Verge reported. At the present moment, it is unclear what will happen to shows and creators that were active on the platform.

This represents only a part of the way the live audio format has gone. Meta shuttered their live audio app, Soundbites, last year. Clubhouse, the leading live audio app at the beginning of the pandemic, started to vary their content to stay relevant and organize content to compete with Twitter Spaces.

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