HBO Max name change...strange to anyone else?

[tall_guy1]

I don't entirely see the logic in changing back to HBO Max. Some ignorant people on the internet complained about HBO not being in the name, but their explanation always made sense that the Max streaming service was more than HBO content...and was since the very beginning. Non-HBO stuff helps properly up the HBO stuff. I don't see the logic in this, except to attract attention temporarily.

 

[Don CT]

It never should have changed in the first place. The company is run by imbeciles. HBO is a legacy name that everyone knows.

 

[tall_guy1]

It never should have changed in the first place. The company is run by imbeciles. HBO is a legacy name that everyone knows.

I don't think it should have been called HBO Max in the first place...it had a lot of non HBO content.

 

[Don CT]

I don't think it should have been called HBO Max in the first place...it had a lot of non HBO content.

Home Box Office seems to fit just fine.

 

[tall_guy1]

Home Box Office seems to fit just fine.

No, but the streaming service HBO Max/Max housed a lot of content on there. It wasn't even that HBO focused. Stuff like Friends, Big Bang, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and later Discovery reality shows were housed there. Even their originals weren't all like HBO. They seemed to correctly identify that several years ago.

 

[Don CT]

No, but the streaming service HBO Max/Max housed a lot of content on there. It wasn't even that HBO focused. Stuff like Friends, Big Bang, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and later Discovery reality shows were housed there. Even their originals weren't all like HBO. They seemed to correctly identify that several years ago.

More people know what HBO is vs what Warner Brothers is.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

I don't entirely see the logic in changing back to HBO Max. Some ignorant people on the internet complained about HBO not being in the name, but their explanation always made sense that the Max streaming service was more than HBO content...and was since the very beginning. Non-HBO stuff helps properly up the HBO stuff. I don't see the logic in this, except to attract attention temporarily.

Reading the tea leaves, it seems to me that the plan is to have two streaming services from Warner Bros-Discovery. Most likely the dividing line would be related to the rumored TV network spinoff.

More people know what HBO is vs what Warner Brothers is.

Really doubt that. A premium cable channel vs. one of the biggest motion picture studios? No contest.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Another multi-million dollar bonus for David Zaslav undoubtedly awaits for this mind-numbingly brilliant marketing move. "I propose we call it...HBO!". Maybe he can throw away some more finished movies and delete some more content while he's at it.

Who could guess dropping the HBO brand was the most idiotic decision in the first place?

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't entirely see the logic in changing back to HBO Max. Some ignorant people on the internet complained about HBO not being in the name, but their explanation always made sense that the Max streaming service was more than HBO content...and was since the very beginning. Non-HBO stuff helps properly up the HBO stuff. I don't see the logic in this, except to attract attention temporarily.

WBD explained the logic in the New York Times article that I posted in the original thread about this:

"Two years ago, Warner Bros. Discovery executives said that they meant well by changing the name to Max. Their overwhelming concern, the executives said, was that Discovery’s suite of reality shows — “Sister Wives,” “My Feet Are Killing Me” — risked watering down the HBO brand, which continued to produce award-winning series like “Succession.”

Executives have conceded in recent months that competing with a everything-for-everybody app like Netflix, which has more than 300 million subscribers, was not realistic. Instead, they would be perfectly happy to be a complementary service.

“We started listening to consumers saying, ‘Hey, we don’t really want more content, we want something that is different, we want to end the death scroll with something that is better,’” JB Perrette, the president of streaming for Warner Bros. Discovery, said in an interview.

Warner Bros. Discovery executives also discovered over the last two years that much of Discovery’s content was not being watched. Original programs tended to do the best on the service, as did new Warner Bros. movies, licensed A24 films and documentaries. Some Discovery content, particularly from its ID cable network, did well, but everything else — food, lifestyle and other reality series from Discovery — went relatively untouched. (Discovery+ remains available as a stand-alone streaming option.)"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/business/media/hbo-max-streaming-name.html?searchResultPosition=1

Short version: They thought the Discovery reality stuff would dilute the HBO prestige brand, so they got the HBO brand out of the way.

Then they found the Discovery stuff had the lowest viewing on the platform and that there wasn't a demand for another huge grab bag of content platform to compete with Netflix.

People are watching Max for HBO's original programming and newer Warner Bros. and A24 movies and documentaries. The HBO brand, as it turns out, is perfect for that---it's essentially what HBO's been for 50 years.

Bottom line: They miscalculated. Max's sweet spot is being a bigger, more robust Apple TV+, not an aspiring Netflix.

 

[michael hagerty]

And if anyone thinks this decision was "sudden":



By last year, they were bringing subtle HBO branding back (putting the bullseye from the "O" in "HBO" into the "a" in "max"). Earlier this year, the background color shifted to HBO's black. The name change to "HBO max" comes this summer.

 

[CTListener]

I'll always remember the rebranding of HBO Max to Max for Peacock's reaction ...

 

[tall_guy1]

WBD explained the logic in the New York Times article that I posted in the original thread about this:





Short version: They thought the Discovery reality stuff would dilute the HBO prestige brand, so they got the HBO brand out of the way.

Then they found the Discovery stuff had the lowest viewing on the platform and that there wasn't a demand for another huge grab bag of content platform to compete with Netflix.

People are watching Max for HBO's original programming and newer Warner Bros. and A24 movies and documentaries. The HBO brand, as it turns out, is perfect for that---it's essentially what HBO's been for 50 years.

Bottom line: They miscalculated. Max's sweet spot is being a bigger, more robust Apple TV+, not an aspiring Netflix

I don't know if adding HBO to the name was the solution though. I think most people got used to calling it just Max, and their original reasoning still applies for shows on there like Friends and Big Bang which don't exactly fit the HBO brand. But most likely, won't help or hurt them much as I think people still have a good idea of what's on there as a whole.

 

[Jstnpspck]

I can attest to pretty much everything WBD said- all the HBO Max viewing in my household has been of premium shows either from HBO proper or that could air there (Sopranos, Righteous Gemstones, Succession, Conan Must Go, The Pitt). We never thought twice about “America’s Wackiest Tumor” or “You and Me and 41 Kids Makes 43” or any other Discovery-side reality stuff, and it’s those shows that they feared would sully the “HBO” name, so they dropped “HBO” from the service name. Now they’re dropping the shows, so “HBO” can return. I think it’s pretty amazing that WBD, in gentler terms, has essentially said exactly this. I don’t see what other kind of nefarious or subliminal or secret meaning could be behind the re-rebrand. (Unbrand? Debrand?)

Regarding shows like Friends or TBBT, I imagine WBD sees them as legacy juggernauts they’re just happy to have on their service and don’t actively harm the HBO name. The same applies to their battle over South Park- not an HBO show proper but a big, long lasting show they were willing to put up a legal fight for just to have behind their paywall.

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't know if adding HBO to the name was the solution though. I think most people got used to calling it just Max, and their original reasoning still applies for shows on there like Friends and Big Bang which don't exactly fit the HBO brand. But most likely, won't help or hurt them much as I think people still have a good idea of what's on there as a whole.

A fully-staffed, fully-budgeted research department versus...some guy with a cartoon avatar on a broadcast board.


No idea why they didn't call you first, man.

 

[tall_guy1]

A fully-staffed, fully-budgeted research department versus...some guy with a cartoon avatar on a broadcast board.


No idea why they didn't call you first, man.

Just my two cents. I think every post on here and elsewhere is just speculation on whether they think it's a good idea or not a good idea, and was two years ago too (there were people in comments who said they should have never added the Discovery content or changed the name in the first and those comments turned out right.) I'm just saying it's unnecessary at this point to do it a second time. People got used to calling it Max...don't think calling it something different will help, but again, just my two cents.

 

[FilmCritic3K]

Reading the tea leaves, it seems to me that the plan is to have two streaming services from Warner Bros-Discovery. Most likely the dividing line would be related to the rumored TV network spinoff.


Really doubt that. A premium cable channel vs. one of the biggest motion picture studios? No contest.

I’ve always contended that last point. They should have just named the damn streaming service Warner Bros.+ or WB+.

 

[tall_guy1]

I think their broad strategy could have worked better if they sold it as a Netflix for their content rather than selling it as an HBO service. They had pretty good content, like their old WB cartoons and shows.

 

[michael hagerty]

I’ve always contended that last point. They should have just named the damn streaming service Warner Bros.+ or WB+.

Yeah, but...HBO has significant brand equity. You can trace the idea of watching an unedited motion picture in the comfort of your home to that brand 50-plus years ago, which also arguably created what we now call prestige television (The Wire, The Sopranos, Succession, The White Lotus and another four or five dozen shows).

While I disagree that people might not know what Warner Bros. is, I don't know that Warner Bros+ or WB+ has any more going for it than Paramount+, which is not doing well.

 

[tall_guy1]

Yeah, but...HBO has significant brand equity. You can trace the idea of watching an unedited motion picture in the comfort of your home to that brand 50-plus years ago, which also arguably created what we now call prestige television (The Wire, The Sopranos, Succession, The White Lotus and another four or five dozen shows).

While I disagree that people might not know what Warner Bros. is, I don't know that Warner Bros+ or WB+ has any more going for it than Paramount+, which is not doing well.

I don't know if HBO's for everyone though. I think Zaslav said himself when he oversaw the launch of Max, some people look at the name HBO and say "that's not for me."

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't know if HBO's for everyone though. I think Zaslav said himself when he oversaw the launch of Max, some people look at the name HBO and say "that's not for me."

Second paragraph of the New York Times piece:

Executives have conceded in recent months that competing with a everything-for-everybody app like Netflix, which has more than 300 million subscribers, was not realistic.