Max will rebrand once more as HBO Max.
Speaking on stage during Warner Bros. Discovery’s Upfront presentation to advertisers, HBO chief executive Casey Bloys announced that the company’s streaming platform, Max, would revert to its previous name, HBO Max.
WBD executives emphasized that the move is an attempt to emphasize its strongest offerings.
“We all know this industry is cluttered. Streaming has become a lot like fast fashion,” Max chief marketing officer Shauna Spenley said on Wednesday. “So when we think about our competitive advantage, it’s the same one that we’ve had at HBO for the last 50 years.”
WBD changed HBO Max’s name to Max in 2023 shortly after WarnerMedia and Discovery merged, creating WBD, in 2022. The company originally rebranded the service as HBO Max in 2020, having pivoted away from the previous name HBO Now, which it announced in 2015. (WBD is also CNN’s parent company.)
By changing the streaming platform’s name roughly two years ago, WBD intended to highlight its diversity of offerings, which include original IP from HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and Discovery.
While Warner Bros. Pictures has seen box office success recently with “A Minecraft Movie” and “Sinners,” the company has suffered several misfires. For years, WBD’s superhero arm, DC Studios, has lagged behind Disney’s Marvel Studios, which, despite historic successes, have seen diminishing returns in recent years as audiences experience superhero fatigue.
The change pushes HBO, the crown jewel in WBD’s content coffers, to the forefront as it looks to draw audiences to the platform. Though WBD’s latest quarterly earnings saw Max report 5.3 million new subscribers, the company still lags behind rivals Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
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