HBO Max is dead! Long live Max! This controversial rebranding exercise is at the behest of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is eager to make the streaming service its one-stop shop for all content it owns. The thinking seems to be that having “HBO” in the title might make some assume it only streams HBO content when it will now encompass everything its parent company has to offer.
But there’s already an amusing wrinkle. HBO is clearly the most prestigious brand on MAX, so with that being stripped out of the title, it now needs to mention it in the strapline:
As others have pointed out, HBO is such a strong brand that decoupling it from MAX is a big risk for the company, so we just hope it knows what it’s doing here. Whatever the risk, at least the amount of content available to subscribers is set to increase, with the service not just featuring the old HBO Max catalog but a whole bunch of new stuff being added week by week.
HBO Max was always one of the stronger competitors to Netflix, relying on practically unmissable shows like House of the Dragon, Succession and Euphoria to drive business. With growth in the streaming market slowing of late and even the mighty Netflix having to tighten its belt (and cancel a lot of beloved shows), let’s hope Max manages to establish itself as a top-line service in line with something like Disney Plus.
We’ll just have to watch and see whether this head-scratching rebranding pays off for them. If not, we suspect heads are going to roll in the Warner Bros. Discovery boardroom.
