Plex has announced that it has formed an agreement with Warner Bros. to make a “package of movies” available for Plex users in the United States later this year. Users will not hand over money to watch the content, rather, they’ll just have to watch ads placed throughout the content. The announcement comes just weeks after Plex announced a massive overhaul to the look and feel of its software.
With the content being ad-supported, Plex Pass is not needed to access the content. Warner Bros.-licensed movies join a growing list of third-party material available upon installation including live and recorded over-the-air TV, news content, web shows, podcasts, and music via TIDAL. Plex was typically used by people who already had content stored locally; by adding third-party content they could be looking for additional users who prefer to stream content rather than keep it saved locally.
Commenting on the news, Keith Valory, CEO of Plex, said:
“Plex has always been about solving new media challenges, and our mission is to tame the growing chaos in the media landscape. Licensing these movies from Warner Bros. Enables us to offer more types of third-party content than any other platform and bring it all together in one beautiful solution. Premium ad-supported movies and shows deserve first-class treatment alongside other content that consumers enjoy daily, as opposed to being orphaned in yet another stand-alone app.”
The companies didn’t announce when the content would be available, only that it would be coming later this year. Hopefully, users in the United States will get access to the material sooner than later. Neither Plex nor Warner Bros. mentioned anything about bringing content to the rest of the world so don’t hold your breath if you’re outside the U.S.