HBO Max launches in the UK on March 26 – and if you’re a NOW Entertainment subscriber, you’re getting HBO Max baked into your subscription. But, it turns out there’s another bit of good news.
Sky and EE confirmed to us that NOW subscribers will also be able to activate a fully standalone HBO Max account, giving them direct access to the HBO Max app – just like a direct subscriber would have.
Originally, this wasn’t the expectation, as most assumed NOW subscribers wouldn’t get standalone HBO Max app access at all, with the service fully integrated into NOW’s platform.
The version of HBO Max built into the NOW app has some limitations: 720p picture quality without a Boost upgrade, a single stream, and no Warner Bros. films. A standalone HBO Max account sidesteps most of those.
The same applies to Prime Video Channels HBO Max subscribers, who will also be able to activate a standalone account – though the implications there are less dramatic.
What’s Happening With HBO Max
Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service launches on March 26, bringing HBO’s complete back catalogue – Game of Thrones, Succession, The Sopranos, The Wire – alongside newer productions like the Emmy-winning The Pitt, Warner Bros. films, and TNT Sports, all in one app.
Direct subscriptions are available at four tiers:
- Basic with Ads – £4.99/month: Two devices, Full HD. Includes HBO shows and Warner Bros. back catalogue films, but not the newest theatrical releases.
- Standard with Ads – £5.99/month: Two devices, Full HD, 30 downloads. Adds those newest theatrical releases.
- Standard – £9.99/month: Same as above but ad-free.
- Premium – £14.99/month: Four devices, 4K Ultra HD, Dolby Atmos, 100 downloads, ad-free.
TNT Sports is available as a separate add-on at £30.99/month, or as a standalone plan.
Pre-registration opens on the App Store and Google Play from March 12.
Most Sky TV customers – on Sky Stream, Sky Glass, and Sky Q with Sky Ultimate TV – are getting HBO Max Basic with Ads bundled into their existing subscription at no extra cost from March 26.
Sky customers get a proper, fully-fledged HBO Max account, meaning they can use the HBO Max app on any compatible device and upgrade tiers through Sky Billing if they want to. We covered the full Sky and NOW picture in detail here.
NOW Entertainment subscribers are getting HBO Max too, but the implementation is different – and that’s where the standalone activation option becomes relevant.
What NOW Subscribers Actually Get – And The Standalone App Option
Before getting into the specifics, it’s worth explaining what “standalone access” actually means – because it’s not something UK streaming subscribers are particularly used to.
When you subscribe to a streaming service through a third-party platform – such as NOW and Prime Video Channels – you’re typically watching that content through the platform’s own app and interface.
Your subscription is managed by that platform, the content is delivered through their app, and you don’t necessarily have a direct account with the streaming service itself. It’s convenient, but it also means you’re bound by whatever limitations that platform imposes.
A standalone account is different. It means you have your own direct account with HBO Max – one that exists independently of NOW or Prime Video.
You can download the HBO Max app on any supported device, log in with your own credentials, and use it just as you would if you’d subscribed directly at £4.99/month.
The subscription is still being paid for through your existing platform, but the experience is that of a direct subscriber.
That’s the case with Sky – where you’ll get a direct HBO Max subscription at no extra cost (and, soon, Disney+ as well), with direct access to the HBO Max app (and the Disney+ app – much like Sky Cinema subscribers get a Paramount+ account at no extra cost).
With NOW, it was highly emphasised that HBO Max will be baked into NOW’s app – so we assumed that means no standalone access to the HBO Max app. Well – turns out that’s not the case.
In practice, this matters for NOW subscribers because the version of HBO Max built into the NOW app comes with some notable restrictions that the standalone app doesn’t have.
From March 26, all existing NOW Entertainment customers will automatically be upgraded to a new NOW Entertainment & HBO Max membership at no extra cost – so HBO Max shows will simply appear in the NOW app alongside Sky Originals and other content, without needing to do anything.
The HBO Max content inside the NOW app covers TV shows only. Warner Bros. films – which are included in the standalone Basic with Ads tier – won’t appear automatically for NOW Entertainment subscribers within the NOW app.
For films on NOW, you’d still need a separate NOW Cinema membership.
There’s also a picture quality catch. Without any Boost add-on, NOW streams everything in 720p – including HBO Max content.
That’s actually lower than the Full HD 1080p you’d get by subscribing directly to HBO Max at £4.99/month. Adding NOW’s Boost (£6/month) brings HBO Max content up to Full HD and removes on-demand ads, while Ultra Boost (£9/month) gets you 4K and Dolby Atmos.
And without Boost, NOW limits you to one simultaneous stream.
This is where the standalone app option becomes quite useful. Sky confirmed to us that NOW subscribers (including EE TV customers with a NOW Entertainment membership) will have the option to activate a standalone HBO Max account and use the HBO Max app directly.
To do this, you’ll apparently need to contact NOW via live chat. BT/EE told us that you’ll then receive a unique activation link that gives you access to HBO Max content directly in the app.
It’s not automatic, and it does require some effort – but for many people, it’ll be worth it.
The HBO Max app streams in Full HD 1080p as standard – no Boost required. So if you’re on the £2.99/month NOW Entertainment deal and don’t want to pay an extra £6/month for Boost just to get decent picture quality on HBO content, activating the standalone app solves that problem entirely.
The HBO Max app also gives you two simultaneous streams on Basic with Ads – double what you get on NOW without Boost.
The trade-off is that the HBO Max app doesn’t support offline downloads at that tier, while the NOW app does for eligible content. So if downloading shows for the train matters to you, you’ll want to keep using NOW for that.
On the question of films, we asked Warner Bros. Discovery directly whether activating the standalone HBO Max app gives NOW subscribers access to the Warner Bros. back catalogue films included in the Basic with Ads tier.
They haven’t confirmed this yet, but it’s the logical conclusion: if you’re activating a full Basic with Ads account, it should include everything that tier offers.
Another interesting question comes up regarding the adverts: if someone has a NOW Boost upgrade, will their standalone HBO Max account become ad-free? That’s something we’ll have to wait and see.
What About Prime Video Subscribers?
Prime Video subscribers are in a similar position. From March 26, HBO Max will also be available as a Prime Video Channel.
Prime Video Channels is Amazon’s add-on subscription system, built directly into Prime Video. It lets you subscribe to third-party streaming services – such as Paramount+, Discovery+, and now HBO Max – and watch their content without ever leaving the Prime Video app.
You manage and pay for everything through Amazon, and the content appears alongside your regular Prime Video library. It’s a convenient way to bundle services, though, as with NOW, it has traditionally meant you’re tied to the Prime Video interface rather than the service’s own app.
However, Amazon confirmed that Prime Video subscribers will also be able to create an account to watch via hbomax.com and the HBO Max app directly.
It’s the same principle as NOW – you’re subscribing via Prime Video Channels, but you’ll have the option to step outside that ecosystem and use HBO Max’s own app if you prefer.
In this case, you get pretty much the same benefits on both versions of the subscription (Full HD, the back-catalogue films included, etc) – so this mostly gives you the added flexibility of watching on either the Prime Video or HBO Max apps.
It’s worth stepping back and appreciating that this kind of flexibility – being able to subscribe through one platform but still access a service’s own app directly – isn’t something we’ve been used to in the UK (though it does exist in the US, with some services – including HBO Max).
Historically, if you watched a service through Sky or NOW or Prime Video, that was your lot. The fact that both NOW and Prime Video subscribers will have a route to a standalone HBO Max account is a genuine plus, even if the process of actually getting there is a bit more convoluted than it probably should be.
Just remember that there’s still some separation – your watchlist and ‘continue watching’ lists will not be synced across the different apps.
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