HBO became HBO Max and then Max. Now it will be HBO Max once more.
Warner Bros Discovery Starting this summer, we will be renaming the streaming platform again and restoring names that were abandoned just two years ago. The company announced the rebranding during a prepayment presentation held in New York on Wednesday.
This change comes as Warner Bros Discovery is trying to reduce the amount of content and focus on high-quality programming and storytelling.
“The strong growth we saw with our global streaming services is built around programming quality,” said David Theslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, in a statement. “Today, we are reviving HBO, the highest quality brand in the media, further accelerating its growth over the next few years.”
The company’s streaming business has grown globally with around $3 billion in profitability over the past two years and with around 22 million subscribers added over the past year. Warner Bros. Discovery aims to have more than 150 million subscribers by the end of 2026.
Still, Warner Bros Discovery has lost its live rights to National Basketball Association games starting next season. The company focuses on paying off debts rather than spending on new content to compete. Netflixwith over 300 million subscribers.
Ironically, HBO Max branding was first introduced in 2019 to showcase HBO’s competitive global streaming ambitions. Currently, Warner Bros Discovery is regaining the same name, but highlighting the opposite amount.
“We will continue to focus on what makes us unique. We will focus on what makes us unique, not everything for everyone in our home, but what is unique and wonderful for adults and families,” said JB Pellet, president and CEO of Streaming at Warner Bros Discovery in a statement. “It’s not really subjective and it’s not even controversial. Our programming is just different.”
Competitors Disney Having taken a similar tack, CEO Bob Iger has recently pointed out that the way to win on streaming is quality content.
All legacy media companies have struggled to achieve profitability in their streaming business since launching their own services in recent years. This puts a focus on the ad layer, with password sharing crackdowns and more streaming service bundles.
The week before New York is already heavy with naming news. ESPN has announced that the upcoming flagship streaming app will be named Simply ESPN. Fox said the upcoming streamer will be named Fox One. Last week, Comcast’s cable portfolio spinoff announced Versant, the name of its new holding company.
Warner Bros Discovery first launched its standalone streaming service HBO Max in 2020 when the brand was still owned AT&T. The “Max” moniker shows that the platform means there is a wide range of content, including reality TV, documentaries, children’s programming, films, and prestige branding for HBO titles.
At the time, leadership believed HBO was too small for its audience, many of whom were based in the US and thought there was more value in making HBO a sub-brand within a larger streaming service.
The service was renamed Max in 2023. The change came after the merger of Discovery Communications and Warnermedia, which was sold from AT&T in 2022. Discovery+ content has been added to HBO Max under a new name.
Now, two years later, Warner Bros Discovery has reversed the course.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC. Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company under the proposed cable portfolio spinoff.
