Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that it will be returning to its HBO Max name for its streaming service this summer.
Just nine days shy of its two year anniversary, Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that Max will return to its HBO Max branding. The announcement was made during the company’s Upfront presentation at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said of the news, “The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.”
JB Perrette, President and CEO of Streaming, said, “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.”
Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, added, “With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”
What this means for the Discovery content that has been added to the service remains to be seen. The wording would seem to imply that we may see that content head back to Discovery Plus as opposed to it all of it being included on HBO Max. At the same time, however, the idea of running two separate streaming services as the industry is contracting seems an odd choice.
No specific date for the changeover was announced.
