Max Is Becoming HBO Max Again

You read that right. What an amazing backtrack, I’m sure it’s got the beat.

Some people never stopped calling Max HBO Max. And now they have good reason. The Warner Bros Discovery streamer that already changed its color scheme from blue to the familiar HBO black is reverting to the name it had from May 2020 to May 2023. HBO Max is back this summer. Should’ve never changed in the first place but that’s David Zaslav’s arrogance for you. It’s probably too short notice to be another May change though. At least the announcement “drew audible laughs and a ripple of applause”.

Announced at Upfronts, the company’s press release said this supposed “evolution” came after months of Max paring down its offering to “de-prioritizing other genres that drive less engagement or acquisition,” including hundreds of hours of the Discovery-branded reality shows and the Cartoon Network library that the Max name was meant to encompass. “No consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content,” it reads. “With other services filling the more basic needs with volume, WBD has clearly distinguished itself through its quality and distinct stories, and no brand has done that better and more consistently over 50+ years than HBO.” This means that with an August 21 premiere, it took so long for Peacemaker season 2 to premiere that it will likely never release an episode under the simple Max branding. It’s also worth noting that South Park is supposed to be leaving the platform sometime this summer as well, reportedly sometime in July.

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They stopped short of calling the rebrand a mistake, probably because it would disrespect all the networks that have been pushed away by the paring down, the projects that were written off and shelved. in the nearly three years since the Discovery regime took over. Some are believing the success this company is positioning itself for with this reversion is for an eventual merger with another streamer. Zaslav said the growth of HBO Max, projected to surpass 150 million subscribers by 2026, 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.”

I’m not sure how much more corporate spin I can actually reprint, especially surrounding this company’s shenanigans, but the immediate aftermath has some major piss taking that is actually a joy to see, even when it’s coming from both the current Twitter handle and the former one that’s soon to be retaken. Because I might as well do some original reporting in this coverage. It started with the press release with a Friends meme and the famous “We were on a break!” Then there’s HBO Max account tweeting “What is dead may never die. HBO Max coming this summer. Same app, new-ish name.” with HBO Max represented by Game of Thrones’s Jon Snow. The first thing the Max Twitter account did was quote tweet that and call out Elon, whose egotistical Twitter rebrand hasn’t caught on either except by his sycophants. Memes ensued, starting with a call back to Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)’s new hairdo try on Veep. Then, riffing on the latest conclave election of Pope Leo XIV “BREAKING: White smoke was seen coming from the Warner Bros. water tower. A new brand has been chosen.” Then came a Superman-skinned Spider-Man pointing meme that also touched on the preceding HBO Now and HBO Go apps. There was “Going into the comment section after rebranding again. Send thoughts and prayers.” And then, with a gif from Matthew McConaughey’s “Time is a flat circle” speech from True Detective, we have “Explaining to my friends I work at HBO Max again”. They even filmed things with Peacemaker star Tim Meadows and The White Lotus’s Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb and Michelle Monaghan.

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Sources: Press release, Vulture