Max gets a name change. It won't be its last.
Somehow HBO Max came back!
The news today is that Max is reverting its brand back to HBO Max.
To understand the thinking there, lets establish the timeline and consider the hows and why of what is happening with the branding of the streaming service we know as Max.
2015
Time-Warner launched HBO Now on April 7. A similar product had technically launched a year prior in the Netherlands. It was a streaming service that mostly delivered HBO programs.
2020
On May 27, the HBO Now app was sunsetted by new owners AT&T and in its place was HBO Max. It was an entirely new platform. The name was heavily criticised by people online because it diluted the integrity of the HBO brand with other shows, like The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men. But it added in movies and a larger library of shows.
2023
On May 23, under new ownership again, HBO Max was rebranded as just Max. The new ownership is in the form of a newly-merged spin-off company that was kind-of a reverse takeover from Discovery Inc with management coming over from that sinking ship.
It was criticised by people online for removing the HBO brand from the name.
The thinking from the new owners was that now that HBO Max was joined by all of the really lousy reality junk that Discovery was porting into the app, the app needed to stand on its own as more of a general audience service. Also, the perception around the HBO brand was that it was all fancy-pants programming for elites. Max was a nice name that everybody could enjoy.
It’s kind of like when the Red Hot Chilli Peppers changed the lyrics in Give It Away to “What I'd like is I'd like to hug and kiss ya.”
But the Max rebrand led to problems:
The mass audience that Netflix attracted with quality drama mixed with reality show fare weren’t embracing Max.
Max’s market research and analytics found that subscribers just weren’t all that into the Discovery content.
There was confusion around the future of HBO and how it integrates into Max as an independent service. Everyone can see the end of cable TV getting closer and closer. What would HBO represent once there’s no longer the cable component to the service?
Which leads us to…
2025
May 14 at the Warner Bros Discovery upfronts presentation, it is announced that Max will once again be rebranded as HBO Max.
It was criticised online for flip-flopping on its brand instead of being hailed for listening to what people were asking for.
In recent months, Max has been pivoting away from the lower tier Discovery content and has emphasised the better quality reality shows, but mostly the scripted shows and movies on platform.
This sentence from the accompanying media release says it all:
This evolution has also been influenced by changing consumer needs, and the fact that no consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content.
This was backed up with a statement from WBD streaming CEO JB Perrette:
We will continue to focus on what makes us unique - not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families. It's really not subjective, not even controversial - our programming just hits different.
It’s a strategy that seems right and gives HBO Max a point of difference in the market. It isn’t just competing in the same lane as Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, etc.
Why did it take them so long to realise their folly? It seemed pretty obvious from the outset, but being that management came from Discovery Inc, it may have been difficult shedding that from their DNA.
A better question: Why are they rebranding now as HBO Now just a month and a half after launching a new colour scheme to better reflect the more prestige HBO-focused approach going forward? Why not launch it as HBO Now then? Yeah, beats me.
But… may I offer this not unreasonable theory…
It’s a result of the evolving/ever-changing strategy at the parent company as it figures out what to do to shed the cable TV assets from the company. Yes, these assets are still bringing in the bulk of the revenue for WBD, but there is a ticking clock on them. The pivot on platform away from all the Discovery content may also represent a bulk of that content being packaged up as a new spin-off company. Scripted fare as one business, unscripted (inclusive of CNN) in the other.
Another question: Why not just call it HBO? That’s a reasonable question. There needs to be some separation from the HBO cable TV channel brand in the US for all sorts of obvious-enough reasons. I’m sure the initial thinking was that the brand HBO Now would only stick around for as long as the cable channel remained a viable business and eventually it’d just evolve into a freestanding HBO brand name for the streamer.
I’m sure that’s where the brand is going now. So, this HBO Now brand is one part placeholder, one part step in the ladder.
Here I note that just last week in the newsletter I suggested that Max would be rebranded as ‘HBO’ within the next 18 months. I now doubt the HBO rebrand would happen that soon, but give it just a few years (unless the company is merged and bought out again, then who knows what happens…).
The HBO Max rebrand gets the HBO name front and centre and reflects the programming for the platform. All of that is good and makes all the sense. The problem HBO Max now has is that everyone’s making fun of it. To Max’s credit, they expected that and are trying to have fun with it via their socials. Even still…
The future of the BBC is as warriors against disinformation
In a loud and buzzy news day, lost in the noise was an address made by BBC chief Tim Davie to staff as he outlined the future for the public broadcaster.
I’m not sure if you have noticed, but conversations around TV have become a lot darker and a lot more focused on shifting global political concerns.
Davie is working to ensure that the BBC plays a major role in combatting the rise of bad AI content and battling disinformation.
Davie told BBC staff:
“The future of our cohesive, democratic society feels, for the first time in my life, at risk. This speaks to issues way beyond party politics or one event, but to longer term factors such as the online revolution and globalization.”
The goal is to position the BBC to “have maximum catalytic effect on the U.K.,” Davie noted. “How we can help families and the U.K. as a whole? With courage, collaboration, investment and imagination, we can create a U.K. that is more inclusive, more secure and more successful.”
To that end, he addressed five areas that the BBC could focus on:
Become a global leader in trusted information
Support democracy
Deploy AI and education technology that will serve the public interest
Maximize economic growth
Ensure a fair digital transition
Part of this work would involve a focus on distributing BBC News content on YouTube and Tik Tok to “ensure we have a stronger position amidst the noise.”
Commercial pressures on media companies will push them further into embracing AI while reducing head count. It is going to be increasingly important for public broadcasters to have strategies around the continued distribution of high quality news and information that consumers can trust.
Public broadcasters who keep doing the same thing year after year without acknowledging that media consumption is very different now, while keeping audiences informed about what those changes are and how their consumption has shifted are doing their audience a disservice. It’s great to see the BBC is on the front foot here.
(And yes, I am thinking a lot about Australia’s Media Watch as I type that).
Read more: WorldScreen
Could Sheldon Cooper destroy Sky News Australia?
A few weeks ago the LNP saw a crushing defeat at the ballot box in the Australian federal election. The LNP performed better in regional Australia than in metro Australia. Why was it so different? Well, many reasons. But a key one has to be media diet. In regional Australia conservative Murdoch-owned opinion-news broadcaster Sky News is found on broadcast TV. In metro Australia, it is only found on subscription TV services (and on Samsung Plus).
That regional distribution deal may be set to be upended. At the end of June, Sky News’ supply agreements with regional broadcasters WIN and SCA is up for renewal. With the recent purchase of the television licenses by Paramount Global-owned Network 10.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
The decision on whether to extend Sky will be a commercial one and will consider advertising revenue and the amount Sky pays the network for the spectrum to air its programming. A clash in corporate values will also be a consideration but is unlikely to be a deciding factor.
Negotiations between Sky and Ten are ongoing. Ten and Sky declined to comment on the status of the commercial agreement.
Ten may instead decide to broadcast its Nickelodeon channel into regional areas instead. Nick in Australia is a mix of Nickelodeon-branded kids shows through the day and library TV titles in the evening - mostly sitcoms like Friends and The Big Bang Theory.
In all of this, it is important to note that viewership for Sky News in primetime isn’t all that impressive. There are days that the readership of this newsletter is higher than some Sky News shows.
Sky’s nightly audience is now also largely unknown, with Foxtel withdrawing from ratings agency OzTam’s reports last year. However, analysis of its four main “After Dark” programs across a week in December shows a marginal audience in regional Australia. Paul Murray Live was the most popular “After Dark” show, with an average audience of 20,000, followed by Credlin with 18,000, Sharri with 17,000 and The Bolt Report with 16,000, according to figures from OzTam.
And or
Last night Star Wars fans said goodbye to Andor.
Holy crap, was I into this show.
You might want to check out the THR exit interview with showrunner Tony Gilroy.
I love that the “rebellions are built on hope” line comes from like a humble hotel clerk, particularly because now that we know Cassian a lot better than we did in Rogue One, that line doesn’t sound like the sort thing that he would come up with.
It’s embarrassing. My office is in my house, and my son is a very big Star Wars fan. So he comes over one day and he said, “Whatcha going to do about ‘rebellions are build on hope’?!” And I go, “What do you mean?” And he said, “Well, who’s going to say it?” And I go, “It comes up in Rogue.” He said, “But where did Cassian get it from?” And I go, “Doesn’t that come from somewhere else [in the movie]?” He goes, “No, it comes from nowhere.” I’m like, “Holy shit. I better find somebody to drop this in there.” So my son really saved my ass on that.
He also has a solid interview worth your time at Variety.
Sure! Why not? That’s what hope is, isn’t it? Its provenance was not mercenary. I’m sure at certain points it helped me out, but it wasn’t there for that purpose. I would’ve done it anyway. That does three things for me at the end. No. 1, it’s for anybody who is confused about Bix leaving Cassian in 9, because it’s a very sophisticated rationale for leaving. I mean, how do you react if you feel like you’re living with someone who has a destiny, and you might be confusing that destiny? That’s a pretty subtle thing. This underlines that and says, “Oh my God, she was pregnant when she was doing that.”
It makes his sacrifice in “Rogue” just that much more epically painful: the child he’ll never see, and all the missed opportunities and the rest of it.
And then it also lets me have hope at the end. It gives me an open door, as you say. And it’s not just an open door to a theme park. It’s an open door to a real feeling for the audience and some sort of empathetic closure.
And Tom Bissell, who wrote the final three episodes, is interviewed over at the excellent Q&A with Jeff Goldsmith podcast.
News Desk
Netflix is rebooting Star Search, running twice a week live. Not a lot of detail yet and I’m hoping Netflix finds a way to make this feel international in scope. Read: TV Line
Netflix reports its ad-tier has 94 million subscribers. Read: THR
HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will now debut in early 2026 (it was expected by the end of this year). Read: Dark Horizons
Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Daisy Edgar-Jones will all star in new Netflix film Here Comes the Flood. It’s from City of God director Fernando Meirelles. All of that sounds great, but it is off a script by Simon Kinberg. That guy stinks. Read: Indiewire
Renewals for Netflix: My Life with The Walter Boys for season 3, The Diplomat for season 4 (great news - I was a bit worried about that one), Forever for season 2, The Four Seasons for season 2, and Bridgerton for seasons 5+6.
Channel 5 in the UK and Acorn TV have commissioned a second season of detective show Ellis. Read: C21
An interesting read is Fox Ad Sales president Jeff Collins on Fox’s continued investment in linear cable at a time where every other company is pulling out. Read: The Wrap
Trailer Park
Marvel show Ironheart debuts June 24 on Disney+
Ironheart is set after the events of Wakanda Forever as Riri returns to her hometown of Chicago. Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins, aka The Hood, played by Anthony Ramos.
Tyler Perry’s STRAW debuts on Netflix June 6.
A single mother (Taraji P. Henson) watches her desperate day spiral into chaos, becoming the prime suspect in a crime she never meant to commit - and suddenly, her survival depends on the one thing she's never been able to trust: the people around her.
Our Times debuts on Netflix June 11.
Husband and wife Nora and Héctor's scientific breakthrough lets them time travel from 1966 to 2025. As Héctor struggles, Nora thrives - but at what cost?
Our Unwritten Seoul debuts on Netflix May 24.
Twin sisters, whose similarities end with their looks, swap identities amid personal struggles - embarking on a journey to rediscover love and life.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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