Hot on the heels of their announcement that they will not be merging their two streaming platforms as initially planned, we are now seeing a refreshed and rebranded HBO Max hit the airways, with a relaunch date of May 23rd. Brandon Blake, our expert entertainment attorney from Blake & Wang P.A has all the details.
The Rise of Max
Relaunching as Max, the ‘refreshed’ streaming platform will bring content from the original HBO Max as well as Discovery+ to the table. Launch price for the premium ad-free version will be $15.99 a month ( or $149.99/year), while the ad-supported tier will launch at $9.99 (or $99.99/year). There will also be a brand new ‘ultra-premium’ tier, complete with Dolby Atmos sound, 4k UHD resolution, and a 100 offline downloads allowance, priced at $19.99 a month (or $199.99/year). Existing HBO Max subscribers will be moved over with their profiles and settings intact, at the same price they are currently paying. As revealed earlier this year, Discovery+ will remain as a standalone service and subscribers will not be affected, although they will have the opportunity to upgrade their subscriptions to the Max packages if desired.
Changes to the Platform
They also announced some key enhancements to the existing platform. Personalized recommendations will now be offered across platforms, instead of on the HBO Max home page. We’ve also been promised a more responsive platform with quicker start times. HBO Max’s glitchiness has been legendary for a while now, so no surprise there.
Coupled with some exciting new programming revelations, including a reimagined Harry Potter series and one based on the popular The Conjuring franchise, we will also see another Game of Thrones spin-off in the works.
Warner Brother’s Discovery currently has 96.1M subscriptions across all platforms, with no information available for specific services. Discovery+, however, remains a profitable entity with low churn, so it’s easy to see why they scrapped the full integration they were planning at the start.
While the rather generic new name has been lampooned in the week since its announcement, it remains to be seen what uptake for the integrated service will be. But for that, we must wait for the relaunch date.
