Max is returning to the title it had when it launched in 2020: HBO Max.
The rebrand will happen this summer season, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed Wednesday at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York. Executives cited current momentum, with the service including international markets and 22 million subscribers over the previous yr, and in addition a aim to “amplify the individuality” of their model to viewers drowning in an ocean of programming. Hints of the change appeared earlier this spring, as Max’s coloration scheme modified from blue to darkish gray, the second shift because the launch with purple in 2020. The brand new emblem preserves the rounded letters of the unique HBO.
“This evolution has additionally been influenced by altering shopper wants,” JB Perrette, President and CEO of Streaming mentioned. “No shopper at present is saying they need extra content material, however most shoppers are saying they need higher content material.” Whereas the discharge stopped wanting admitting the Max rebrand in 2023 had been a mistake, it referred to as it “a testomony to WBD’s willingness to maintain boldly iterating its technique and method – leaning closely on shopper knowledge and insights. (Translation: Customers by no means totally embraced the Max deal with.)
Perrette and Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content material, assessed the progress in streaming over the previous 5 years and walked advert patrons by means of the upcoming change. When Bloys made the massive reveal, it drew audible laughs and a ripple of applause.
“With the course we’re on and robust momentum we’re having fun with, we imagine HBO Max much better represents our present shopper proposition,” Bloys mentioned. :And it clearly states our implicit promise to ship content material that’s acknowledged as distinctive and, to steal a line we all the time mentioned at HBO, price paying for.”
Because the shut of the $43 billion WarnerMedia-Discovery merger in April 2022, the mixed firm has made a sequence of strikes in streaming, which has simply turned worthwhile however generates far decrease returns than its legacy cable networks. In 2023, the corporate rebranded HBO Max as Max and added programming from Discovery+, leaving the latter service obtainable as a stand-alone. The corporate has additionally experimented with sports activities and information tiers on Max and has additionally introduced a CNN subscription providing.
Fueled by sequence like The White Lotus and The Final of Us, HBO has remained core to the enchantment of Max, particularly internationally. Requested throughout final week’s quarterly earnings name concerning the state of HBO, CEO David Zaslav proclaimed it to be “the strongest it has ever been,” likening its pull on viewers to that of NBC in its “Should-See TV” prime.
Rebranding to HBO Max will “amplify the individuality that subscribers can anticipate from the providing,” the press launch mentioned.
Zaslav mentioned the expansion of HBO Max, which is projected to surpass 150 million subscribers by 2026, is “constructed across the high quality of our programming. Right this moment, we’re bringing again HBO, the model that represents the best high quality in media, to additional speed up that progress within the years forward.”
