Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled pricing for Max, its new streaming service that combines HBO Max and Discovery Plus, as its flagship offering in the increasingly competitive video market. The service will launch in the United States on 23 May and will feature a wide range of content from Warner Bros., HBO, Discovery and other brands. It will lose the HBO tag, a brand with a reputation for premium programming in the United States but less widely recognised internationally. It also drops the Discovery name.
JB Perrette, the president and chief executive of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said: “This new brand signals an important change from two narrower products, HBO Max and discovery+, to our broader content offering and consumer proposition. While each product offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody.”
A visual reference to the original HBO logo is retained with the bullet inside the max logo.
Max will have three pricing tiers: $9.99 a month for an ad-supported version, $15.99 a month for an ad-free version and $19.99 a month for an ultimate plan that includes 4K resolution, Dolby Atmos sound and more concurrent streams and downloads. Existing HBO Max subscribers will be automatically transitioned to Max without any additional cost or action.
“The Max service is a wide-ranging mosaic of content that will be unmatched in the breadth, reach, and excellence of its offerings,” said Casey Bloys, the chairman and chief executive of HBO and Max Content. “We are unique because we have the best-in-all-categories across the board by any measure — be they ratings, awards, fandom. We know we can satisfy any craving because we have the brands that people love. At Max, they will find what they want, when they want it.”
Max is the result of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery that was announced in 2021 and completed last year. The merger aimed to create a stronger player in the streaming landscape that is dominated by Netflix, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video.
At the end of 2022, HBO Max, HBO and Discovery+ had 96 million direct to consumer subscribers, either retail or through wholesale relationships, of which 41 million were outside the United States.