Max, the streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, will once again be named “HBO Max.” The platform previously dropped the “HBO” name in 2023, not long after Warner Bros. and Discovery, Inc merged.
Warner Bros. Discovery announced the upcoming name change today, which will take effect “this summer.” The company said the rebrand is “a testament to WBD’s willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach,” which is a funny way to say that the last name change didn’t stick at all and reversing course is the best move. The company also mentioned that HBO Max has added 22 million subscribers over the past year, with “a clear path to over 150M+ by the end of 2026.”
The decision to ditch the HBO brand that has been well-recognized and associated with high-quality TV was bizarre, to say the least, and many people continued to just call it HBO Max. Google searches in the United States for “hbo max” have only dropped by around half since the rebrand in May 2023. Warner was also still using the HBO brand for new and ongoing shows like House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The White Lotus, so the name never really vanished.
Warner Bros. Discovery also rolled out a monochrome logo and design for Max back in March, replacing the blue color scheme that it was using since the rebrand. The updated design looked a lot more like HBO Max, so it’s not a surprise Warner is now going all the way and bringing back the old name.
Related
Max Will Now Charge for “Extra Members” Like Netflix
Sharing your Max account with someone outside of your household? You’re not alone, and Max has a new way to handle it that looks awfully familiar. Just like Netflix, Max is now letting you add an “Extra Member” to your account, but it’ll cost you. For an extra $7.99 a month, the primary account holder can invite someone outside their home to create their own separate profile under the existing subscription.
The streaming service has changed identities several times over the years. HBO Max originally existed alongside HBO Go, the streaming platform for subscribers to the paid HBO television channel. HBO Go was merged into HBO Max in 2020, then later became “Max,” and now we’re back to HBO Max.
Unfortunately, even though the old name is coming back, it doesn’t seem like all the shows and movies that were removed from the service are returning. Warner Bros. Discovery previously removed Raised By Wolves, Westworld, Head of the Class, many classic Loony Tunes shorts, The Time Traveler’s Wife, and many other shows and movies from the service, at least in part to take advantage of tax write-offs.
Warner also killed production or distribution for several movies, like Batgirl and two Loony Tunes-based productions, Coyote vs. Acme and The Day the Earth Blew Up. Ketchup Entertainment later released The Day the Earth Blew Up after buying the distribution rights, and it plans to do the same for Coyote vs. Acme. Those two movies could theoretically end up on HBO Max, but it would be through a license deal just like all the other externally-owned shows and movies.
Source: Warner Bros. Discovery
