In what may be a first in the modern streaming wars, Max is returning to the name it had when it launched in 2020, HBO Max.
The rebrand will take place this summer, Warner Bros. Discovery revealed Wednesday at its upfront presentation to advertisers in New York. Executives cited recent momentum, with the service adding global markets and 22 million subscribers over the past year, and also a goal to “amplify the uniqueness” of their brand to viewers drowning in an ocean of programming. Hints of the change appeared earlier this spring, as Max’s color scheme changed from blue to dark grey, the second shift since the launch with purple in 2020. The new logo preserves the rounded letters of the original HBO.
“This evolution has also been influenced by changing consumer needs,” the company said in a press release timed to the upfront event, “and the fact that no consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content.” While the release stopped short of admitting the Max rebrand in 2023 had been a mistake, it called it “a testament to WBD’s willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach – leaning heavily on consumer data and insights. (Translation: Consumers never fully embraced the Max handle.)
JB Perrette, President and CEO of Streaming, and Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, walked ad buyers through the upcoming change.
“We will continue to focus on what makes us unique – not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families. It’s really not subjective, not even controversial – our programming just hits different,” Perrette said.
“With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition,” Bloys said. :And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”
Since the close of the $43 billion WarnerMedia-Discovery merger in April 2022, the combined company has made a series of moves in streaming, which has just turned profitable but generates far lower returns than its legacy cable networks. In 2023, the company rebranded HBO Max as Max and added programming from Discovery+, leaving the latter service available as a stand-alone. The company has also experimented with sports and news tiers on Max and has also announced a CNN subscription offering.
Fueled by series like The White Lotus and The Last of UsHBO has remained core to the appeal of Max, especially internationally. Asked during last week’s quarterly earnings call about the state of HBO, CEO David Zaslav proclaimed it to be “the strongest it has ever been,” likening its pull on viewers to that of NBC in its “Must-See TV” prime.
Rebranding to HBO Max will “amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering,” the press release said.
Zaslav said the growth of HBO Max, which is 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.”
