What do you get when you mix HBO Max and parts of Discovery+? Max. That’s the name of the new streaming video service from Warner Bros. Discovery launching next month. The totally original, utterly distinctive, completely creative name has been rumored since December. The marketing department either couldn’t conjure a better name or, more likely, couldn’t convince their bosses that something including HBO, you know, signaled that this is the HBO stuff.
The top brass at the merged media companies certainly aren’t married to the HBO brand, despite those three letters being synonymous with prestige television. The Apple TV+ approach of having fewer shows with a higher value (than, say, Netflix) is regularly described as the HBO strategy. (Apple also inked an exclusive deal with the HBO guy.) It could be that the Discovery brand is just boring or too closely associated with reality shows and ex-HGTV talent, and the bros from WBD are showing max hubris.
HBO has certainly undergone its fair share of branding exercises prior to being conglomerated into Max. HBO2 briefly tried the name HBO Plus before reverting. HBO GO was the HBO streaming portal for HBO cable subscribers. Then HBO GO coexisted with HBO Now, the distinction being that GO required cable and Now was a stand-alone subscription. Then HBO Max sanely settled the difference.
Maybe Max is ironically more memorable. Just don’t mix it Max with Cinemax. Or the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Or the M2 Pro Max. Or Macs, as in Macintosh computers. Personally, I might be maxed out on subscription services at this moment. Did anyone consider HBO Multiverse?
Top comment by Eli Johnson
This will be studied by marketing students in forty years as a case-study of the consequences of not considering brands when naming new products.
Plus, it’s not like Apple has room to talk. See the above mentions of “max/Macs” as well as its Apple TV box, Apple TV app, and Apple TV+ streaming service. Come to think of it, a lot of users do boil the streaming service down to Apple Plus. I did joke over email to John Gruber last month that I was “looking forward to Apple’s new video service, +” in response to the Daring Fireball coverage of the murky Max name probably coming true. I liked his reply: “For when they merge with Disney!” (Upon his latest return to Disney, the one who cannot be retired, Bob Igor, had to nope rumors of his company merging with Apple last fall before they really even started.)
Back to “Don’t Call It HBO” Max. Warner Bros. Discovery is launching Max on May 23 with a blue theme replacing purple and prices remaining the same. HBO Max goes for $10/month with ads or $16/month without. One thing new is Max breaks out 4K content into a new tier that costs $20/month. And while Max replaces HBO Max, WBD is leaving Discovery+ unchanged. That stand-alone service is priced at $5/month with commercials or $7/month without.
Warner Bros. Discovery did pad the Max news with news of new content (i.e., content that would have been on HBO Max anyway) that will eventually live on the service. This includes a series connected from “The Batman” movie about The Penguin mobster villain, a Chuck Lorre comedy from the universe of “The Big Bang Theory,” a JK Rowling executive-produced Harry Potter TV series based on the seven-book series, and more. Much more to come with Max, I’m sure.
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