What it’s essential know
- Max is ditching the “Max” identify and going again to HBO Max this summer season—lower than two years after switching it up.
- This would be the second time the service has modified its identify in simply three years—first launched as HBO Max in 2020, changing HBO Now and separate from HBO Go.
- The corporate is specializing in high-quality TV over an enormous library.
Warner Bros. Discovery has introduced that Max is getting its outdated identify again. The streaming service is heading again to being referred to as HBO Max, prefer it by no means left.
Simply two years after ditching the HBO Max identify, it’s coming again. At Wednesday’s Upfront occasion, the corporate confirmed the swap will occur this summer season.
The upcoming identify change marks the platform’s second id disaster in simply three years. Again in Could 2020, when it was nonetheless beneath WarnerMedia, the streaming service launched as HBO Max, changing HBO Now (its standalone streaming choice since 2014) whereas holding it separate from HBO Go (its outdated cable-authenticated VOD service that is since been retired).
“Extra content material” wasn’t the reply
At launch, WarnerMedia promised HBO Max would ship all the pieces HBO has to supply after which some.
HBO Max additionally packed in content material from the remainder of WarnerMedia’s lineup, together with DC Comics, Cartoon Community, and extra. Nonetheless, the true hook was having the ability to stream HBO’s top-shelf lineup with no need cable.
When Max ditched the HBO identify in 2023, it left everybody scratching their heads. All of a sudden, apps on platforms like Google TV confirmed up as simply “Max,” complicated subscribers who puzzled the place their HBO content material went.
Warner Bros. Discovery claimed that the aim was to broaden the model’s enchantment past simply HBO’s status TV crowd. No extra HBO within the identify meant the service might push actuality reveals, children’ content material, and blockbuster films with out feeling tied to HBO’s intellectual fame.
A lesson in model loyalty
Seems, viewers weren’t shy about hating the identify change. Regardless of Warner Bros. Discovery’s grand plans, dropping HBO rubbed followers the fallacious manner, and plenty of noticed it as ditching the status that made the platform particular within the first place.
Now, the corporate is course-correcting. As an alternative of chasing a “amount over high quality” method with a sprawling library of random content material, it is doubling down on high-end, must-watch TV.
Bringing again the HBO identify is a key transfer in Warner Bros. Discovery’s plan to develop its international subscriber base. The corporate believes that reintroducing the HBO model on Max will make it crystal clear to subscribers what sort of high-quality content material they’ll anticipate.
