() — Warner Bros. Discovery on Wednesday unveiled “Max,” its streaming superplatform that unites some of the company’s most storied brands under one roof and aims to compete aggressively in the streaming market as the traditional linear television business declines. quickly.
The new service, announced by CEO David Zaslav in a press briefing on Wednesday, will launch on May 23 and will offer consumers access to a vast library of shows from Warner Bros. Discovery’s extensive portfolio: Warner Bros. , HBO, HGTV, Food Network, Cartoon Network, TLC and others.
“It’s the one to see,” Zaslav said, referring to the service’s tagline, “because we have so many of the most iconic and recognizable franchises in the world. It’s our superpower.” The streaming platform is a service “every member of the family” can turn to for entertainment, he added.
Prices
Max subscribers can choose from three pricing tiers. The cheapest is $9.99 per month and will display ads. The ad-free version will cost $15.99, the price of the company’s current HBO Max service.
That tier will allow customers to stream on two devices at once and download up to 30 titles, but the content will only be available in high definition rather than 4K.
The “Harry Potter” and “Game of Thrones” franchises are renewed in the newly created streamer Max
Users who want the highest-resolution 4K streams will need to sign up for the Max “ultimate plan” for $19.99 a month, which includes up to four simultaneous streams, 100 downloads, and Dolby Atmos sound.
Existing HBO Max customers will switch to the new service without having to do anything. Those users, a Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson told , will be able to keep existing features, such as 4K HDR resolution, for a limited period before they are asked to upgrade to the “ultimate plan.”
The Max platform was born from the mega-merger announced between WarnerMedia and Discovery in 2021 and completed last year. Warner Bros. Discovery is also the parent company of .
David Zaslav, Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, speaks onstage during a press event on April 12, 2023 in Burbank, California. Credit: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for HBO
Series and reality shows
Company executives tout the combined streaming service as unique in its content mix: It combines hit shows like HBO’s “Succession” and “House of the Dragon” with unscripted ones like HGTV’s “Fixer Upper.” , and TLC’s “90 Day Fiancé.”
New titles announced include:
Harry Potter, an original series by Max that is a faithful adaptation of the beloved original book series by JK Rowling, who will serve as executive producer An original comedy series by Max spin-off of “The Big Bang Theory” “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight,” an HBO Original prequel to “Game of Thrones” An Original Max Drama Series based on the “The Conjuring” movies “Fixer Upper: The Hotel” on Magnolia Network “Survive the Raft,” Discovery Channel’s “Peter & the Wolf,” Bono’s “Rick and Morty: The Anime,” Adult Swim’s “Lost Women of Highway 20,” Investigation Discovery’s “Tiny Toons Looniversity,” Cartoon Network’s “Love & Translation,” of TLC “Attack plan” for news and sports
Zaslav also hinted that news and sports programming will be included on the service in the future, since Turner Sports and are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Logo of the upcoming streaming service “Max” from Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We are world leaders in sports and in news,” Zaslav said. “And in a few months we’ll be back to talk to you about our plan of attack to use this important and differentiating content to further grow our streaming business.”
The Max service represents the future for Warner Bros. Discovery, which has entrenched itself in a declining traditional TV business as audiences turn to streaming.
In recent years, other companies in the cable sector have also launched streaming platforms, such as Disney, NBC and Paramount. But none of these companies has achieved the success of Netflix, a pioneer in the streaming business and with more than 230 million subscribers worldwide.
Discovery Takes Control of HBO, and Warner Bros., Creating a New Media Giant
Warner Bros. Discovery expects to amass 130 million subscribers by 2025. At the launch event, the company’s streaming chief, Jean-Briac Perrette, discussed various improvements to the HBO Max interface to increase retention and engagement, and added that the company invested in technology of machine learning so that home streaming services can recommend content using a “human-machine-optimized approach.”
However, the growth of subscribers to streaming services has slowed in recent years as the market becomes saturated. Some companies have introduced cheaper ad-supported plans to attract more people.
Increasingly, executives have come to emphasize profitability over subscriber growth as the most important measure of a company’s success. Netflix even announced last year that it would stop providing its subscriber numbers, stating that the company is “increasingly focused on revenue as our main top-line metric.”
