HBO Max is ending. It will be renamed “Max” with the addition of Discovery+ content
Warner Bros. Discovery has officially announced a new name for its flagship streamer Max, doing away with part of the HBO name.
The company announced the name change at a Wednesday press event, where it also revealed a list of upcoming projects. The retooled Max will launch first in the U.S. on May 23 and will feature an average of more than 40 new titles and series seasons each month.
“Max is the one to watch,” WBD CEO David Zaslav said on stage at the event, which featured thousands of shows and movies for every member of the household on the service.
According to the service’s website, Max will be available in three different versions. The first two plans are in line with existing HBO Max pricing, and WBD said that existing HBO Max customers will not see any price changes (for now) with the launch of the new service. The third tier, “Max Ultimate,” expands the offering to up to four streams and includes 4K content.
The Max Ultimate tier will have an expanded catalog of content available in 4K UHD, including content from franchises such as “Game of Thrones,” “The Last of Us,” “Harry Potter,” “Lord of the Rings,” “The Dark Knight Trilogy” and more. In addition, all of the Warner Bros. films released this year and in the future will also be available in 4K UHD when they appear on Max after theatrical release, the company announced.
In a Q&A with reporters at the event, Casey Bloys, director of content for HBO and Max, clarified the decision to drop HBO from the HBO Max title. “The same people who are upset today about dropping HBO from the title are in many cases [the same ones] who were outraged that HBO was included in the title at all, that it was called HBO Max,” he said. “It was a lot of questions like, ‘How was HBO supposed to be included next to The Big Bang Theory’? So I understand and appreciate the passion that people feel for the HBO brand and protect it and believe in it. Nobody believes in it more than me and my team. But like I said, it’s a premium brand. It’s not meant to match everything in the library or the streaming service.”
Perrette said the newly rebuilt Max platform will be easier to use – with simplified navigation – and will have more personalization features than HBO Max. Max will include a more prominent experience for kids, with a new default child profile for new subscribers, along with accompanying parental controls. According to WBD, Max will also feature a new video playback environment that will provide users with “smooth and cinematic video”.
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