Did HBO and Cinemax merge? What happened to Cinemax, explained

The television network Cinemax has been generating buzz recently after HBO Max rebranded to Max earlier this week.

As previously reported, HBO Max’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery merged the platform with Discovery Plus as an attempt to attract a younger audience by adding thousands of new titles, including reality television programming. Although HBO Max’s rebrand to Max, which has obtained negative reviews thus far, occurred on May 23, many began to wonder if the overall platform was turning into Cinemax due to its new name and the content they will now feature on the platform.

But contrary to popular belief, Max and Cinemax didn’t merge together, at least for the time being, because it is still operative through a television subscription. According to The Streamable, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they were shutting down the web platform of Cinemax Go in July 2022. Although the reason surrounding the end of Cinemax Go hasn’t been revealed, it can be assumed it had to do with HBO Max’s partnership with Discovery Plus. 

The publication also states that at the time of the announcement, Cinemax didn’t have a downloadable app for televisions or mobile devices and hadn’t for about two years, leaving many of its subscribers to use the web platform. With Cinemax Go’s web platform being removed entirely, the only way that people could watch the channel’s content is through a traditional television subscription, and depending on one’s provider, the prices will vary. The starting price to subscribe to Cinemax is $9.99. 

At this time, it is unclear if Warner Bros. Discovery would ever merge Cinemax and Max together, and the company has yet to address the negative remarks regarding Max’s rebrand.