[Streaming] Max (né HBO Max)

[JCC]

Yeah, this all sounds shitty. I get it for free with my internet but if that ever stops, they will joining the likes of Britbox where I just sub for a month or so once a year.

[hepcat]

Okay, you win, HBO. I’ll stick around for Perry Mason season 2 and Succession. But after that…we’re quits.

…well, after Doom Patrol ends, that is.

[Smoove_B]

Barry!

[hepcat]

…and Barry.

[hepcat]

Binge watching Perry Mason after forgetting about season 2 for a few weeks. I love this show. It just went in a direction I didn’t expect and the story has changed a lot. It keeps viewers on their toes.

[Zaxxon]

Episode 3 of Succession is an amazing hour of television.

[hepcat]

Yeah, I was NOT expecting that.

[stessier]

This is the alternate piece for Millenials. I remember Showbiz Pizza and had no idea about all this history!

[malchior]

HBO Max orders Harry Potter series. The talk is that the pace will be a season per book.

Side note it might be time to update thread title. Dropping the HBO name? David Zaslav is sooo edgy.

A “Harry Potter” TV series is officially moving forward at HBO Max.

The announcement was made during Warner Bros. Discovery’s presentation to press and investors on April 12, during which it was announced that HBO Max and Discovery+ are officially being combined into a new service dubbed simply Max.

News of a show based on the megahit J.K. Rowling book series first leaked on April 3, but details have now been confirmed.

Each season of the show will be based on one of the books in the franchise, with Warner Bros. Discovery describing the show as a “decade-long series.” It will feature an entirely new cast from the films.

[naednek]

Episode 3 of Succession is an amazing hour of television.

Funny I thought they spent too much time asking if the person was truly dead. Just a bunch of word salad this season has been so far.

[Kraken]

Episode 3 of Succession is an amazing hour of television.

Funny I thought they spent too much time asking if the person was truly dead. Just a bunch of word salad this season has been so far.

Because they didn't know.

Spoiler:

We got to see each sibling's denial/reckoning from the moment they got this momentous and unexpected news. Most of the episode took place in real time, with long continuous shots. Even the viewer wasn't sure, at first, and the realization came slowly, just as the siblings were experiencing it.

It was masterfully written and filmed, IMO.

[McNutt]

That felt real.

[YellowKing]

Max launches today so I jumped in to see what's what.

First off, I found out I was getting HBO free with my AT&T internet sub, so now that I can cancel Discovery+ I'll actually wind up saving money. It does mean I'm locked into Ad-Free, though, so no 4K. Not a deal breaker though, I can "suffer" through free content in 1080p.

One important note - while your HBO Max watch history is transferred over, your Discovery+ watch history is NOT. So be sure to finish up any half-watched shows and take notes of where you left off in a series on Discovery+ before you cancel.

Actually, someone may need to verify the above - I realized after posting that my Discovery account and HBO account were under two different email addresses, which may be why it didn't transfer.

Looking forward to checking out the Gremlins animated series.

[JCC]

Yeah I also checked out MAX and was mildly annoyed I had to manually log in again. I had read before that AT&T Internet users would still get it (though apparently you don't want to make any changes to your plan) and that 4K wouldn't be available anymore. Bummer. But, if I ever have to pay for Max, I will be a part timer so I am content to stick with HD for "free". I don't have a clue what the Discovery content is, so I have no idea if this is an improvement or not. I still can't believe they dropped the "HBO" and kept the "MAX".

[Zaxxon]

4K wouldn't be available anymore

WTF?

[JCC]

4K wouldn't be available anymore

WTF?

Just to clarify, I got 4K content with my free sub from being an AT&T Gigabit customer with HBO Max. Now that it's MAX, the 4K is on a tier not included with the package I get with my AT&T internet. You can pay for the highest tier to get 4K.

[coopasonic]

Not that Max was brimming with 4k content.

[Carpet_pissr]

Oh hells no. They better not downgrade me from 4K with their bullshit switchover.

[hepcat]

Unless you upgrade from the legacy ad free tier to the ultimate, you’ll get only a handful of 4K movies. And then only for about 6 months before you only get HD. Apparently the ultimate plan will have over a thousand movies and shows at 4K.

I think I’ll drop after Succession and Barry ends and then subscribe a few times a year for the ultimate to catch up on things.

[Kraken]

Peacock announced today that they will not follow HBO Max's lead and drop the first half of their name.

[Carpet_pissr]

So just “Pea” then, huh?

[stimpy]

Peacock announced today that they will not follow HBO Max's lead and drop the first half of their name.

BUT, they are going from a no cost option for Xfinity customers to a paid option as of 6/26.
$6 a month.
Ridiculous for the content they offer.

[hepcat]

Two quick recommendations from HBO Max:

1) Royal Crackers - an Adult Swim cartoon that is funny, absurd and sometimes touching. It's about a family cracker business started by a now comatose father and now run by his two sons. The last episode was about AI but they kept up the joke that AI was made possible by a fabulous new invention, the Linksys router.

2) Fired on Mars - another cartoon, but this one is hard to describe. it's a semi serious science fiction workplace comedy that leans more into the aspect of being shipped off to another planet, with no chance of returning, and then losing the reason you were sent there. The main character Jeff is a graphic designer who leaves for Mars, then finds out his job has become redundant after a few weeks. After that it's a series of mishaps both personal and corporate, culminating in a huge decision for Jeff. I was surprised at how much science was in the science fiction part of the show. It's no The Martian, but it's fun while still being a good story.

[ImLawBoy]

I've caught probably half or so of the episodes of Royal Crackers on Adult Swim. I've found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. There are a lot of gems hidden around, but there's some pretty bad stuff too. FWIW, the later episodes did seem better than the earlier ones.

[hepcat]

The first few episodes I think its finding its legs. The failed rock star brother, who is clearly modeled after Fred Durst, has way too many stories. But then they seem to settle down and they refocus on the family as a whole. Particularly Stebe and his son, who are the funnier characters. I think the season 1 finale will make you fall for the show.

But the flashback stories about the evil grand sire of the group are always comedy gold.

Spoiler:

[Rumpy]

I still can't believe they dropped the "HBO" and kept the "MAX".

Yeah, it's a moronic decision that I think will come back to haunt them. They essentially took away their brand name and kept the descriptor.. But internationally, I think the name will stick to HBO. I don't see the licensing agreements changing to something that's got less brand recognition.

[ImLawBoy]

I still can't believe they dropped the "HBO" and kept the "MAX".

Yeah, it's a moronic decision that I think will come back to haunt them. They essentially took away their brand name and kept the descriptor.. But internationally, I think the name will stick to HBO. I don't see the licensing agreements changing to something that's got less brand recognition.

I think moronic overstates things. If you take as a given that they were going to merge Discovery+ content and HBOMax content into a single platform, then does it really make sense to keep the "HBO" as the overall title? HBO will still be a part of Max as a category you can choose from, but now you don't risk sullying the HBO name with Dr. Pimple Popper content. It can maintain its cachet as super premium programming geared to a more adult audience.

I'm not 100% convinced it was the right move, but I certainly wouldn't call it moronic.

[Kraken]

I thought they dropped "HBO" because people associate it with movies, and they don't want to be "the movie service."

[Rumpy]

I still can't believe they dropped the "HBO" and kept the "MAX".

Yeah, it's a moronic decision that I think will come back to haunt them. They essentially took away their brand name and kept the descriptor.. But internationally, I think the name will stick to HBO. I don't see the licensing agreements changing to something that's got less brand recognition.

I think moronic overstates things. If you take as a given that they were going to merge Discovery+ content and HBOMax content into a single platform, then does it really make sense to keep the "HBO" as the overall title? HBO will still be a part of Max as a category you can choose from, but now you don't risk sullying the HBO name with Dr. Pimple Popper content. It can maintain its cachet as super premium programming geared to a more adult audience.

I'm not 100% convinced it was the right move, but I certainly wouldn't call it moronic.

Well, maybe it was a bit harsh. But yes, I do think it does make sense to keep HBO in the title as brand identifier. Internationally, we don't have those other things to go with it, and HBO is the most recognizable thing out of all of them. Calling it Max is just weird and will just end up causing confusion. Internationally we'll be talking HBO while you guys talk Max.

[ImLawBoy]

HBO is the most recognizable, but it also carries a certain element of prestige with it. Is the short term benefit of brand recognizability (and I say short term because I think Max won't take long to become well known) worth the long term dilution of the value of the HBO brand?

[Zarathud]

I think they did it so they’re pitching a disposable but overall MAX streaming service. Their cross-platform advertising and upsell is ridiculously aggressive. My kids are pissed they can no longer get South Park on Hulu — instead it pitches the upgrade for MAX+Live TV and sports. I think South Park is buried in MAX, but they’re relying on forcing service “upgrades” to survive. And that pisses me off.

[Carpet_pissr]

I also think killing a very well known (and respected) brand name in favor of one that recalls (to me) a half-assed ‘Cinemax’ is a huge branding mistake.

They have created amazing, ‘watercooler’ shows like Game of Thrones among many others (not to even mention the movies), won tons of both popular and critics’ praise (and awards). Not saying they will give that up with a name change, but there’s a reason really popular brands rarely tinker with the core name.

[Rumpy]

HBO is the most recognizable, but it also carries a certain element of prestige with it. Is the short term benefit of brand recognizability (and I say short term because I think Max won't take long to become well known) worth the long term dilution of the value of the HBO brand?

The problem is that the new name is so generic that it doesn't convey much of anything. It'd be like naming a streaming service 'Super'. Or if Nike were to rebrand themselves as 'Running'. They've built out decades of recognition with the HBO name, one that is recognized internationally. It's instantly recognizable. It feels like they're throwing all of that away with this new branding. If they really wanted new branding, they could have come up with something much better.

[Isgrimnur]

Anyone heard from SyFy lately?

[Zarathud]

They’re putting HBO out as a sub brand to build their own empire, without co-ownership fees or licensing. Follow the money and accounting when the marketing is stupid.

[ImLawBoy]

I think they did it so they’re pitching a disposable but overall MAX streaming service. Their cross-platform advertising and upsell is ridiculously aggressive. My kids are pissed they can no longer get South Park on Hulu — instead it pitches the upgrade for MAX+Live TV and sports. I think South Park is buried in MAX, but they’re relying on forcing service “upgrades” to survive. And that pisses me off.

Hulu and Max are unrelated. If South Park is moving around services, it's probably due to licensing issues.

I also think killing a very well known (and respected) brand name in favor of one that recalls (to me) a half-assed ‘Cinemax’ is a huge branding mistake.

They have created amazing, ‘watercooler’ shows like Game of Thrones among many others (not to even mention the movies), won tons of both popular and critics’ praise (and awards). Not saying they will give that up with a name change, but there’s a reason really popular brands rarely tinker with the core name.

They're not killing HBO, though. They're trying to save it. Aligning it with Discovery and HGTV programming threatens the brand. The HBO brand is about high quality programming aimed at an adult audience. They don't want to dilute that by putting reality TV and Beat Bobby Flay under the HBO banner. The HBO segment will be alive and (hopefully) continuing to create elite programming.

HBO is the most recognizable, but it also carries a certain element of prestige with it. Is the short term benefit of brand recognizability (and I say short term because I think Max won't take long to become well known) worth the long term dilution of the value of the HBO brand?

The problem is that the new name is so generic that it doesn't convey much of anything. It'd be like naming a streaming service 'Super'. Or if Nike were to rebrand themselves as 'Running'. They've built out decades of recognition with the HBO name, one that is recognized internationally. It's instantly recognizable. It feels like they're throwing all of that away with this new branding. If they really wanted new branding, they could have come up with something much better.

Give it some time. What did Hulu mean? What did Verizon mean? Man, did we make fun of Verizon when they trotted out that name! [edit]I thought of another one! Accenture was raked over the coals when they came up with that name in the aftermath of Arthur Anderson's collapse![/edit] Max is already starting out in a better place than either of those with the shift from HBOMax to Max, and the clever visual of keeping the stylized HBO O visual in the new logo as the center of the "a" further reinforces it.

I know I'm not going to convince anyone - I even said I wasn't convinced it was the right move. Still, I think people are really overstating the potential negative impact of the name change. It'll be interesting to revisit in a few years and see where things stand. They could be rolling along. They could be sputtering. In either case I think the issue will be less about whether they kept the HBO in front of the Max and more about whether people are willing to pay for their programming.

[Isgrimnur]

Still, I think people are really overstating the potential negative impact of the name change.

Anyone heard from SyFy lately?

Odds are good that "Max" isn't any more trademarkable in English-speaking countries than SciFi was.

[Kraken]

Still, I think people are really overstating the potential negative impact of the name change.

Anyone heard from SyFy lately?

Odds are good that "Max" isn't any more trademarkable in English-speaking countries than SciFi was.

I'll bet they could totally own "M@X" though.

[Rumpy]

T
Give it some time. What did Hulu mean? What did Verizon mean? Man, did we make fun of Verizon when they trotted out that name! [edit]I thought of another one! Accenture was raked over the coals when they came up with that name in the aftermath of Arthur Anderson's collapse![/edit] Max is already starting out in a better place than either of those with the shift from HBOMax to Max, and the clever visual of keeping the stylized HBO O visual in the new logo as the center of the "a" further reinforces it.

Sure, maybe in 3-5 years, if they don't change it again before then, which has been the trendy thing to do as of late. But time is money. What they've had with the HBO branding is momentum that was carried with the recognition it had.

[YellowKing]

The whole name controversy is silly to me. People are incredibly adaptive to dumb names (remember Nintendo Wii? iPad?) And Max isn't even really a dumb name, it's just a lazy/safe one.

I kind of look at the dilution of the HBO brand from the opposite angle. I see it as rebranding into something more inclusive and representative of a larger library than "just HBO." There is a segment of the population that looks at HBO as a premium (read $$$) channel. Bundling it all under the Max umbrella abstracts it away from being "that channel I only pay for when Game of Thrones is on."

In short, I think (and I think they think) they'll gain more subscribers with the Max branding than they'll lose because people are confused HBO is no longer in the name.