HBO Reveals First Look At ‘Max’ The HBO Max Replacement Streaming App

HBO Max has about two weeks left to live before Warner Bros. Discovery Red-Weddings it, toppling it from its Iron Throne and replacing the service with Max—just Max, thank you very much—a shorter, but perhaps less distinct and memorable, name.

The thinking here is simple: HBO is a fine brand, but it carries with it a certain reputation. It’s a good reputation, but one geared toward adult audiences. With the Discovery merger, Warner Bros. is trying to appeal to a wider audience. With Max, parents can set up kids’ accounts and parental controls. There will be a push to offer up more family friendly offerings, as well as live sports and, of course, all that Discovery content.

It’s not so much Warner trying to shed the HBO identity, but expand it to become something more. Whether that will work, whether it’s a savvy business move or just Warner shooting itself in the foot, remains to be seen.

I will say this, the first images of the app—which launches May 23rd—look very nice. It’s very slick. Here’s a comparison shot showing off HBO Max vs Max:

Not that different, really. Max has larger font, a menu at the top of the screen and the icons at the bottom are larger (and fewer) all of which makes it look a bit cleaner and more navigable.

Here you can see the emphasis on family programming:

And here you can see what the browsing-for-content experience looks like:

Pricing And Release

For most subscribers, HBO Max should update automatically and become just Max (Max-just-Max) without any work on your part, though some may have to download an update. It’s really a shame that Mad Max isn’t on offer on Max because watching Mad Max on Max would be mad good.

Max will roll out in some markets at a later date, with some Europe and Asia markets not rolling out the app until 2024.

Pricing for Max subscriptions includes several tiers:

• Max Ad-Lite costs $10/month and comes with HD and two streams.
• Ad-Free Max costs $16/month for HD, two streams and 30 downloads.
• Max Ultimate costs $20/month and includes 4 streams, 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos sound, with 100 downloads (and is a clear no-brainer over the $16/month option)

Some existing HBO Max features will remain for six months before having to upgrade. Discovery Plus will be available as a separate option for $5/month with ads or $7/month without ads, though there’s no reason to subscribe if you’re a Max subscriber, obviously.

New Content

On top of the new Discovery content, Warner Bros. has revealed a number of upcoming offerings headed to Max. These include:

• A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, the new Game Of Thrones spinoff series.
• The Penguin, which is set in the same universe as Matt Reeves’ The Batman.
• A new Harry Potter live-action series based on J.K. Rowling’s books, with one book adapted per season.
• Shazam! Fury Of The Gods will hit the streamer the day Max goes live, May 23rd.
• The new True Detective: Night Country limited series starring Jodie Foster which comes out later this year.
• A Big Bang Theory spinoff, a series set in The Conjuring universe, a new Gremlins series and much, much more.

I’m still a little leery of this whole brand shift for one pretty good reason: HBO is a really trusted and respected brand. Re-branding something that is already so well-respected and familiar is a major risk. But as a TV critic, if you were to ask me which of the various studios making television series out there made the best, most consistent content, I wouldn’t hesitate: HBO, hands down. This is where you’ll find The White Lotus, The Last Of Us, Succession, Barry, True Detective, Station Eleven and so much more I couldn’t possibly list them all here. There is simply a level of quality across all of these shows that you don’t see as often or consistently anywhere else. Sure, all these streamers have their big hits and high-quality offerings, but HBO has more. And now HBO will be subsumed into Max, just Max, thank you very much.

It’ll probably be fine. But it is a little strange.