Warner Bros. Discovery Is Really Going to Drop the ‘HBO’ Brand and Just Call Its Streaming Service ‘Max’

Wednesday, 12 April 2023

Warner Bros. Discovery:

Warner Bros. Discovery today introduced Max, its enhanced streaming service, which will launch in the U.S. on May 23. Max is the destination for HBO Originals, Warner Bros. films, Max Originals, the DC universe, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, an expansive offering of kids content, and best-in-class programming across food, home, reality, lifestyle and documentaries from leading brands like HGTV, Food Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, ID and more. Max will stand out amongst streamers by uniquely combining unrivaled breadth and superior quality with iconic franchises and strong product experience, all for great value.

I would argue the opposite: that by cramming their entire disparate gamut of brands into a single service, none of them stand out, and the Max brand stands for nothing.¹

Max will offer three pricing options, giving subscribers the choice to select which plan best fits the needs of their household.

• Max Ad-Lite — $9.99/month or $99.99/year
  2 concurrent streams, 1080p resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ad Free — $15.99/month or $149.99/year
  2 concurrent streams, 1080 resolution, 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ultimate Ad Free — $19.99/month or $199.99/year
  4 concurrent streams, up to 4K UHD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality

These prices are pretty much the same as Netflix’s, except that Netflix’s “basic with ads” tier (it’s adorable that Max is calling theirs “ad-lite”) is $7/month and, criminally, still limited to 720p resolution. Disney+ currently offers two plans: $8/month with ads, or $11/month without (and with offline downloads). Disney+ also offers bundles with Hulu and ESPN+: $13/month with ads, $20/month without. Apple TV+ — with a growing but admittedly boutique-sized library compared to Max, Netflix, and Disney/Hulu — is $7/month, and has no tier with ads.

When this “Max” name truncation was first rumored in December, I wrote:

Not the worst name they could go with. The mistake with “HBO Max” was muddying the premium HBO brand with the “anything and everything” content of a unified app for everything this enormous content factory conglomerate puts online. My big question is what happens to HBO content. Is it stuck in a tab inside the “Max” app, or will there be a standalone “HBO” app too?

Looks like HBO is now just a brand inside the Max service. They’re ceding the “everything you get on this service is premium content, and there are no ads” ground to Apple TV+. HBO is still HBO on cable, but as the world inexorably moves to an all-streaming future, this feels like “corporate synergy” run amok. The non-HBO content in HBO Max already diluted the brand; now they’re putting even more non-premium content (all the Discovery crap) into the same app. (Today’s New York Times headline says it all: “‘Succession’ and ‘Dr. Pimple Popper’ Together in New Warner Streaming App”.)

Disney set the example Warner Bros. Discovery should have followed, with Disney+ and Hulu as separate apps, but priced together in a bundle. Disney isn’t relegating Disney+ content into a mere tab in the Hulu app, nor are they allowing Hulu’s content to dilute the prestigious Disney brand in the Disney+ app.

They obviously think they’ve being clever with the Max logotype having a dot inside the “a”, evoking the “o” in HBO’s, but I find it just sad — the bastardization of an iconic mark. Either Max stands on its own, independent of HBO, or HBO should be the brand for HBO content.

HBO’s old slogan was “It’s not TV. It’s HBO”. That slogan captured HBO’s prestige: unedited major motion pictures, best-of-breed original content, all without commercial interruptions. HBO’s new slogan might as well be “It’s not TV. It’s a tab somewhere in the Max app.”