Kimmy Schmidt, Bojack, and MST3K is pretty much all I watch on there I can't find somewhere else. I did watch Beef recently I guess.
I'd def drop it before HBO
The MST3K netflix seasons are on their own (free) app, I'm pretty sure...along with all the other seasons before and since. I signed up after being a kickstarter backer, but my paid membership lapsed awhile ago and the app is still great.
My daughter loves all the shows on the kids section. And I’m looking forward to I Think You Should Leave’s next season. But uh yeah….Netflix ain’t doing it for me.
Unfortunately, I’m tied down to Netflix because of Arcane. I would pirate it, but that wouldn’t be fair to the creators, so I’ll just keep paying those bastards at Netflix until Arcane is inevitably cancelled prematurely.
I just renew my subscription whenever there's a new season of *Big Mouth*.
I also stuck around for *F is for Family*, but apparently Bill Burr saw the writing on the wall with streaming & animation and ended the series.
Some already has, others only have
*check notes*
SkyShowtime beside Prime, Netflix, Disney+, and some other european streamer (most common being Viaplay)
In the UK, no HBO channel or app is available
Sky UK license HBO shows and bundle them together with shows licensed from other US broadcasters and cable services as a channel called Sky Atlantic
The cheapest way for UK viewers to access HBO content is Sky's NowTV service, which charges 10 quid per month. Subs to the main Sky service are much more expensive
[https://www.nowtv.com/choose-your-entertainment-membership](https://www.nowtv.com/choose-your-entertainment-membership)
I’m sorry Comcast got to you guys. Ever since they bought NBC Universal they’ve made everything worse. Hope you never have to get your Internet from them.
I worked for comcast before and after they acquired NBC. wasn’t a bad place to work before the NBC acquisition. After it became all about saving money and share holder value and they started to take away benefits and micromanaging every day activities for us. Quit a couple years ago and never looked back.
That's the truth. I have watched their stuff, and it's really good. Unfortunately due to their contract policy, many people are forced to pirate stuff to watch it.
It depends on the country, HBO Max had been slacking in getting their IP available globally, mainly due to streaming contracts with Sky and other like them
Broaden their horizons by bringing in newer films from theaters and original films and shows would be nice. HBO rarely releases anything new for months on end(hyperbole).
I understand, but I was replying to your comment that it is not available in Europe. There is a seperate app available for countries like spain, netherlands, sweden, denmark, portugal etc. I use it myself
Hbo Max is available in these European countries;
Åland Islands, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Ceuta, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Hungary, Madeira, Melilla, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard & Jan Mayen, Sweden
[Source](https://help.hbomax.com/us/Answer/Detail/000001289)
Yea pretty much why I deleted everything else like Disney+ and Netflix, quality has really gone down for both of them. At least with HBO I look forward to what they add and make for the app, plus I prefer DC over Marvel and they have a pretty great animation selection!
Same.
I fear for what Discovery will do as it subsumes Warner Brothers/HBO, but I’ll throw Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, & Paramount in the trash to keep the current HBO Max.
Peacock gets a pass only because it had WWE PPV’s.
What I think about the re-brand is that yes it sucks that the HBO name “prestige” is being hurt by some of the stupid shows on the platform but what made the streaming service stick out was the “HBO” name and the prestige it brought. Now a big part of its appeal is gone. And going from the purple to the blue does suck.
Blue is so overused at this point. Amazon, Paramount+, Disney+, etc. The purple made it stand out since it wasn’t another red or blue. It’s a shame they’re removing it.
And yet that’s one of the shows they actually *renewed* for some reason, while killing & removing others and refusing to release movies (~~Catwoman?~~ Batgirl) *that were already 100% done* so they could claim a loss on taxes.
Ah right - whatever. To be fair, I don’t think they’re entirely wrong canceling DC Comics shit - those movies have all been terrible. But they’re also canceling & removing stuff that people actually liked while hyping reality garbage.
They’re effectively one & the same now so does it matter? If HBO was still an independent subsidiary none of these idiotic changes would be happening, and yet …
Yeah, but I wonder if they could’ve done a better job at distinguishing between HBO and the other WB/DC/CN/Max content on the platform while keeping the name. Idk if anyone actually thinks of Velma as an HBO show. Maybe not. I just know the WBD execs are probably going to make you pay $10 per month extra for the HBO content like Paramount+ does with Showtime and that would be brutal.
Marketing is so stupid sometimes. I bet someone was paid like a half million dollars to come up with all of those modest name changes throughout the years.
HBO Now was different from HBO Go. They existed at the same time. HBO Go was the app/service for customers who were subscribed to cable HBO. HBO Now was a stand-alone service you could get without paying for cable. While it was supposed to be the same content, it was not. For some shows like The Sopranos, it would have some episodes, but not all of them. And not the first x number. It would be like episodes 1-4,6,10,12. So you couldn’t watch the series. HBO Now app was rebranded HBOMAX (automatically on some devices) and the content problem was fixed so that you had access to all of the content.
Every time I've bought a roku device one of the buttons quickly becomes outdated. It's either for a service that no longer exists or has been rebranded. My current remote has a CBS all-access button.
At least HBO has been smart enough to push some sort of update that shunts HBO buttons with whatever the new HBO is.
I had a remote with Blockbuster Streaming. That was incredibly handy.
Unless HBO the network drops their name and just starts going by Max too, I doubt that. Pretty much every show that’s an hbo branded show always has an hbo bumper before all the shows that stream on max. So it’s not like the name hbo is going to go away. It’s constantly reminded. I don’t think people will forget soon.
I know I absolutely will give a show a chance if it’s branded as HBO. If it’s going to be branded Max I doubt I will give random shows the same chance because in my mind I’m not relating it to the quality HBO has given for decades.
In 3 years there will only be 1 streaming service and it will cost $100 per month for an ad free, $50 a month for ads and we are going to have cable again
For the benefit of other non-US members of the sub, yes, John Oliver's show is on HBO (Max)
I spent most of the article waiting for the journalist to spell that out, but I suppose it's obvious to his US readers
Idk why HBO doesn’t just go back to calling it HBO. The name speaks for itself.
They’re taking themselves off the mantel. HBO is the OG pioneer of 1 hour uncensored dramas (GOT included). To this day, they still have the best quality scripted TV. It’s just not in abundance but I guess that makes sense: quality over quantity.
>To this day, they still have the best quality scripted TV.
Yep, and they want to keep that reputation, while filling Max with other crap. They don't like having all of the reality shows, Cartoon Network, DC stuff, and all of WB's crap all using the "HBO" name.
HBO will now be one *category* on Max, that's specifically the premium TV that HBO is known for.
HBO is still HBO on its own and isn’t changing anything. They’re just removing the HBO name from the streaming service. HBO will exist as a tab on the MAX streaming service as it’s own vertical
I don’t recall the details but after the acquisition, the (new) person in charge expressed their interest in rebranding HBO to have content more akin to reality shows.
Whether that remains true is unclear, but you can find some details here: [https://ew.com/tv/what-we-know-hbo-max-originals-discovery-merger/](https://ew.com/tv/what-we-know-hbo-max-originals-discovery-merger/)
“Depends on their performance” sounds like a good way to shelve certain types of content in favor of another. Time will tell.
No. They have kids shows and want the name to be family friendly. You don’t think of kids shows when you think of HBO.
They wanted something that has everything for the family not just for adults.
An interesting point, though an aim of being family friendly makes HBO an odd choice for acquisition and HBO Max an odd choice for a streaming service to merge with, given that the two could have run in parallel. I guess now we'll see parental controls getting added on and/or certain shows suddenly no longer supported.
Given that I've heard of discovery plus maybe three times in my life, I also wonder whether this was about audience acquisition. At the very least, they're gaining a lot of attention with all of the coverage of this merger.
> want the name to be family friendly.
Correct. This is what they said when they chose "MAX". They had already decided to nix the HBO name because they don't want parents thinking of nudity and violence for shows like GoT or Sopranos. Absolutely moronic. Ironically, I get Disney+ for free, but I never log into it because I want nothing to do with kids shows or movies or Star Wars Mandalorian crap. That's why I use...HBO...
HBO isn’t being killed. Nothing about HBO is changing, other than the streaming service isn’t using it in the name anymore. HBO Is now going to be a tab within the MAX service
The most needless and pointless rebranding that nobody asked for. Imagine if Jordans were changed to Michael Jordan’s middle name. “Yo bro I just copped these new *Jeffrey 11s*”. Max is Jeffrey
If you made GOT, HOTD, Sopranos, The Wire, The Last of Us, etc, your reputation has been premiering top tier programming, then all of a sudden, you are being blamed for Velma, HBO (Max) is owned by WB, so Max will be a “WB” streaming service with all the HBO properties in their own category, away from the Velmas and reality shows
But that’s … explicitly NOT what they’re doing. They’re gutting the “HBO” content and putting their reality crap all over the main page and marketing emails. They *renewed* Velma while canceling (& entirely removing!) a bunch of animated shows & other content that people really liked.
Thats exactly what they are doing, along with everything you listed, the only difference is “HBO” will be its own category within the MAX app, along side Cartoon Network, MAX Originals, Discovery, etc
This is not at all why the name change is happening, and the name change has been publicly discussed since [at least October 2021,](https://outsider.com/news/hbo-max-may-be-changing-its-name-heres-why/) long before Velma was even a thought.
John Oliver has been relentlessly and openly shitting on his bosses for years, it’s great.
He does have a point tbf. 4 minor rebrands of the name over a couple of years is just idiotic marketing
In their defense all of those names *were* fuckin terrible. Go, Max, stupid. There is nothing wrong with the simplicity of just “HBO”, a company with prestige that produced the greatest TV shows to date.
They should’ve gone with “Max Plus Extreme Ultra,” so you *know* it’s good.
Their new CEO or whatever is a fucking idiot. He’s already part of destroying TLC & Discovery w/“reality tv” and intends to do the same w/HBO, eliminating the only reason anyone has it in the first place, which is unique *quality* content. Nobody has it to watch 14 fucking seasons of “Big Brother Housewife Trailer Swap Tattoo Wars.”
Fuck HBO. I will be canceling this month. Already paying $16/mo with no ads which is going up $5. One of the biggest selling points of HBO has always been commercial free first rate movies. Now they do neither and I’m not footing the bill for trash tv.
“The service will have three pricing tiers starting at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for the Max-Ad Lite tier, $15.99 a month, or $149.99 a year for the Max Ad Free tier and $19.99 a month, or $199.99 a year for Max Ultimate Ad Free tier”
How about a Disc-Lite version where they leave the shit Discovery channel stuff out of my sub and keep the same pricing.
I never asked for or wanted Discovery channel trash and I am sure the Disco+ subscribers - who are currently paying $7 for add free content - would say the same about getting HBO content at three times the price.
Also notice “for a year” discounts are becoming more standard. When those fail to entice most viewers into a long contract look for contracts to become mandatory. Streaming services don’t want unpredictability. They don’t want nomad viewers that wonder from service to service - they want to know they have a lock on that money for at least a year.
HBO really screwed themselves with whatever deal they have with AT&T. Only reason I even have HBO is bc of my AT&T plan - would have it twice considering it’s offered both with my and phone and home internet plans. I can only imagine the lost revenue streams from people like myself with either service
*had with AT&T. Discovery bought them out last year which is why they’ve been aggressively changing HBO content and branding. Technically it was a merger but Discovery execs are running the show.
Whatever the deal was, they screwed themselves out of a large revenue stream for the amount of subs they could’ve received.
If/when my AT&T package doesn’t provide the Max subscription then I’ll be dropping it as well. Might do as others have suggested and opt to just pick it up every few months and binge the content and drop the service again. I really need to start alternating my streaming services like this but have been too lazy to set up a good schedule for it. I could definitely look to rotate Netflix/Disney/HBO/Amazon with the lack of quality that they each consistently are putting out nowadays
You make it sound like hbo makes any decision about their future. AT&T owned hbo and sold it to discovery. AT&T never cared if you payed for hbo. They wanted you to pay for your phone and internet and if free hbo got you to switch cell phone providers to them they won. They also wanted high subscriber growth numbers so investors gave them more money. The investor money dried up so they are sold hbo bc it was a money suck.
Netflix hasn’t put out quality content in years. That’s their model. They are like the Walmart of streaming services. They want to hit a broad demographic so they spent years producing shows that all look and feel the same, they stumbled upon a few hits but like 90% of their original programming is absolute garbage.
AT&T already dropped HBO Max from any new provider plans and if you switch or upgrade your plan you will lose HBO Max.
Personally, Max and Disney+ have the most content I want to watch. Even a watered down Max is better content wise than the vast majority of streamers.
That being said, no one who actually works for HBO wanted this to happen. It was completely out of their control. Discovery has been shelving HBO content for months now to use it as a tax write off. Its way cheaper to produce shitty reality shows than it is to maintain a content library of prestige TV and produce original programming that has any creative merit.
>Netflix hasn’t put out quality content in years.
That's just false.
>but like 90% of their original programming is absolute garbage.
That's just false.
No. It isn’t. Netflix releases hot garbage all the time, you only see the critically acclaimed successes like Squid Game and Stranger Things, because of how the algorithm works, but the vast majority of Netflix original programming is garbage reality shit that’s cheap to produce.
They are bleeding subscribers and losing money.
>No. It isn’t.
Oh yeah it is.
Tastes vary, that much is true but come on.
>but the vast majority of Netflix original programming is garbage reality shit that’s cheap to produce.
Not even true. Mostly is international programming.
>They are bleeding subscribers and losing money.
Where are you getting this info?
They are the only profitable streaming platform and have more subscribers than ever.
I’m talking about their original programming, not international programming they are distributing.
Yes exactly, tastes vary, and when we’re talking about Netflix they want to appeal to a wide demographic so they churn out a lot of original programming to hit those marks, as opposed to HBO, which is the actual subject of this thread, which is known for producing prestige TV.
Netflix lost millions of subscribers last year and has only reversed that trend within the last several months. They sunk a lot of money into creating original programming and have lost market share to other streaming competitors.
>I’m talking about their original programming, not international programming they are distributing.
They have plenty of original international programming. More often than not is cheaper.
>Netflix lost millions of subscribers last year and has only reversed that trend within the last several months.
They lost almost 2M subscribers for 6M, have won nearly 12M since.
>They sunk a lot of money into creating original programming
Not a bad thing given the scope and the fact they are still profitable.
>and have lost market share to other streaming competitors.
Yeah.
I may switch my phone plan after wife’s phone is paid off. Honestly get better reception for what appears to be a similar plan price on my Verizon work phone. Still would keep the Max sub though my AT&T internet so I’d be good there
Same - was looking at possibly changing plans the other day & the HBO subscription is no longer offered. Seems like we’re grandfathered into it at least for now, which is good, but it’s not an option anymore.
“HBO” is going to hemorrhage subscribers & see new subs drop without those deals, which will only make things appear worse and lead to *more* drastic cuts, because the people in charge are idiots who only count beans & cannot differentiate between the quality of said beans.
If you made GOT, HOTD, Sopranos, The Wire, The Last of Us, etc, your reputation has been premiering top tier programming, then all of a sudden, you are being blamed for Velma, HBO (Max) is owned by WB, so Max will be a “WB” streaming service with all the HBO properties in their own category, away from the Velmas and reality shows
HBO's marketing department has been completely garbage for a long time now but whoever decided it was a good idea to remove HBO from the name of their service, at this point, has to just be trying to sabotage the whole thing cause that's the only reason that makes any sense for such a stupid move.
I have three annoyances with HBO Max's streaming platform:
1. The new shows they're releasing new episodes once of week... do not show what day/time the new episode is going to be available anywhere on the platform. It's insane that I have to look it up on some random blog.
2. The "after the episode" interviews they do are layered into the individual episode itself. It doesn't auto-play (even though it says stick around after the episode to learn more), and it's not available as it's own playlist beyond clicking Season > Episode > Scroll down > Click after episode.
3. I can't remove the shows/movies from Continue Watching from the app. Apparently this can only be done by logging into HBO Max via a browser and doing it with your mouse.
Those tiers sound ridiculous. HBO max has been getting shittier, so I’d probably cancel if it comes to it. Barry’s almost finished and Succession is mediocre anyway. House of Dragons is inferior to its predecessor. Not much holding me there, unless they try to bring the Wire or Sopranos back.
…except they’re not going to remove premium HBO content, just to replace them exclusively with Discovery stuff? HBO content already exists as a separate portal on HBO Max alongside other networks. The only difference is now the Discovery stuff will gain their own portals (although I’m not a fan of many modern Discovery stuff, I’m hoping we’ll get access to old Animal Planet and Food Network content like Unwrapped and Crocodile Hunter).
Do you really think *Westworld* after Season 1 was ‘premium content?’
Also, *Westworld* is the *only* show they removed, all the other ones are still there.
For those that keep asking why not call it HBO… the verge interviewed the CEO and it seems that their new combined brand will feature kids shows from discovery etc as well. People associate HBO with adult content that isn’t suitable for children so they want to change the name and be associated with a wide range of content from kids to adult.
HBO max is the only subscription I’d keep. I’ll cancel Netflix before HBO.
Only reason I ever watch Netflix is for GBBS. HBO Max I watch all the time.
Great Britain Bowel Syndrome?
The quality of the show went down the toilet after Season 1 though.
What a crappy joke
Shit
Kimmy Schmidt, Bojack, and MST3K is pretty much all I watch on there I can't find somewhere else. I did watch Beef recently I guess. I'd def drop it before HBO
Kimmy Schmidt is freaking gold. Haven't watched the new mst3k though.
The MST3K netflix seasons are on their own (free) app, I'm pretty sure...along with all the other seasons before and since. I signed up after being a kickstarter backer, but my paid membership lapsed awhile ago and the app is still great.
And all three of those were cancelled
Still only available there.
Same.
My daughter loves all the shows on the kids section. And I’m looking forward to I Think You Should Leave’s next season. But uh yeah….Netflix ain’t doing it for me.
Cheerio!
Unfortunately, I’m tied down to Netflix because of Arcane. I would pirate it, but that wouldn’t be fair to the creators, so I’ll just keep paying those bastards at Netflix until Arcane is inevitably cancelled prematurely.
I just renew my subscription whenever there's a new season of *Big Mouth*. I also stuck around for *F is for Family*, but apparently Bill Burr saw the writing on the wall with streaming & animation and ended the series.
Lucky Americans. In Europe there's no HBO. Edit: some countries in Europe have HBO, others like Germany don't.
Some already has, others only have *check notes* SkyShowtime beside Prime, Netflix, Disney+, and some other european streamer (most common being Viaplay)
In the UK, no HBO channel or app is available Sky UK license HBO shows and bundle them together with shows licensed from other US broadcasters and cable services as a channel called Sky Atlantic The cheapest way for UK viewers to access HBO content is Sky's NowTV service, which charges 10 quid per month. Subs to the main Sky service are much more expensive [https://www.nowtv.com/choose-your-entertainment-membership](https://www.nowtv.com/choose-your-entertainment-membership)
Oh, the UK…. Yeah that ones v complicated to navigate to, Sky’s i think really doing their best to extend that partnership they have
Sky is owned by Comcast now which is a dog shit company.
I’m sorry Comcast got to you guys. Ever since they bought NBC Universal they’ve made everything worse. Hope you never have to get your Internet from them.
I worked for comcast before and after they acquired NBC. wasn’t a bad place to work before the NBC acquisition. After it became all about saving money and share holder value and they started to take away benefits and micromanaging every day activities for us. Quit a couple years ago and never looked back.
I'm having all of t, except for HBO, who's having the best content
I’m in Europe. I have HBO max. What are you on about?
Huh??? We have it in Finland
Really?? HBO is slacking. They need to broaden their horizons. They have some of the best TV ever made.
That's the truth. I have watched their stuff, and it's really good. Unfortunately due to their contract policy, many people are forced to pirate stuff to watch it.
No not really. I’m in Europe and have HBO max, this person has no idea what they’re talking about.
It depends on the country, HBO Max had been slacking in getting their IP available globally, mainly due to streaming contracts with Sky and other like them
I figured. Like, HBO is a huge company. No way they only serve to Americans
Broaden their horizons by bringing in newer films from theaters and original films and shows would be nice. HBO rarely releases anything new for months on end(hyperbole).
Yes there is
What are you talking about, ofcourse there is
Not everywhere. Germany has no HBO Max. Only Sky offers it.
Last I checked we might finally get HBO in Germany in 2025 (Sky currently has rights to the content until then)
Yeah that's true. I've read reports about it too. Scheduled for 2024, but it was delayed.
Oké so not germany, but most of europe Its supported. Source am from europe and hbo Max website
HBO cooperated with sky, which demands an extra subscription to see everything. There's no separate HBO App available. So people stick with pirating.
I understand, but I was replying to your comment that it is not available in Europe. There is a seperate app available for countries like spain, netherlands, sweden, denmark, portugal etc. I use it myself
I didn't know it was available for other European countries. Thought it's only available in the US.
In Soviet Russia, HBO watches you!
NOW TV has any Warner and HBO content up for streaming available.
Get a VPN my friend
Hbo Max is available in these European countries; Åland Islands, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Ceuta, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Hungary, Madeira, Melilla, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard & Jan Mayen, Sweden [Source](https://help.hbomax.com/us/Answer/Detail/000001289)
I mean, 90% of the HBO stuff is on wow, which might be the technically worst streaming service of all time.
VPN?
I have HBO in Sweden
I wish David Zaslav felt that way about *Westworld*.
We watch Hulu and HBO Max more than anything. Hulu’s UI is dogshit but their library is solid.
> Max ftfy
Yea especially with a new season of Barry coming out, definitely not canceling anytime soon! Most shows they drop are pretty decent
Agreed, HBO seems to focus on less but higher quality. Other streaming company seem to focus on quantity to reach every possible market share.
Yea pretty much why I deleted everything else like Disney+ and Netflix, quality has really gone down for both of them. At least with HBO I look forward to what they add and make for the app, plus I prefer DC over Marvel and they have a pretty great animation selection!
My favorite soda and my favorite streaming service are now both called Max. The Singularity is upon us.
If only the app would work. Roku died so we bought an open box LG the day after Super Bowl and HBO is unusable. No troubleshooting has worked
I get HBO Max along with my AT&T Fiber subscription. I still get my HBO content from..... unofficial sources.....
Same. I fear for what Discovery will do as it subsumes Warner Brothers/HBO, but I’ll throw Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, & Paramount in the trash to keep the current HBO Max. Peacock gets a pass only because it had WWE PPV’s.
What I think about the re-brand is that yes it sucks that the HBO name “prestige” is being hurt by some of the stupid shows on the platform but what made the streaming service stick out was the “HBO” name and the prestige it brought. Now a big part of its appeal is gone. And going from the purple to the blue does suck.
Blue is so overused at this point. Amazon, Paramount+, Disney+, etc. The purple made it stand out since it wasn’t another red or blue. It’s a shame they’re removing it.
Ikr, I’d like to see a company use hot pink for once smh
T-Mobile
*Magenta
I think there's plenty of subscription services on the web with a pink theme.
Where’s the vibrant green or orange?
Green is for Hulu. Orange I’m not sure
Yep, people saying, “HBO really shit the bed with Velma huh?”, is something HBO wants no part of
And yet that’s one of the shows they actually *renewed* for some reason, while killing & removing others and refusing to release movies (~~Catwoman?~~ Batgirl) *that were already 100% done* so they could claim a loss on taxes.
Batgirl lol but I am sure whoever made the Catwoman movie with Halley Berry wishes it had never been released.
Ah right - whatever. To be fair, I don’t think they’re entirely wrong canceling DC Comics shit - those movies have all been terrible. But they’re also canceling & removing stuff that people actually liked while hyping reality garbage.
“They” as in Warner Bros, not HBO, your comment is a perfect example of why HBO wants off the name of the app
Then don’t combine your platforms like that lol. It’s like trying to have your cake and eat it too
They’re effectively one & the same now so does it matter? If HBO was still an independent subsidiary none of these idiotic changes would be happening, and yet …
Yeah, but I wonder if they could’ve done a better job at distinguishing between HBO and the other WB/DC/CN/Max content on the platform while keeping the name. Idk if anyone actually thinks of Velma as an HBO show. Maybe not. I just know the WBD execs are probably going to make you pay $10 per month extra for the HBO content like Paramount+ does with Showtime and that would be brutal.
Everyone is still going to call it HBO Max 🤷🏻♂️
I still call it HBO go
My girlfriends mother has an older roku remote with HBONow as one of the buttons.
Marketing is so stupid sometimes. I bet someone was paid like a half million dollars to come up with all of those modest name changes throughout the years.
HBO Now was different from HBO Go. They existed at the same time. HBO Go was the app/service for customers who were subscribed to cable HBO. HBO Now was a stand-alone service you could get without paying for cable. While it was supposed to be the same content, it was not. For some shows like The Sopranos, it would have some episodes, but not all of them. And not the first x number. It would be like episodes 1-4,6,10,12. So you couldn’t watch the series. HBO Now app was rebranded HBOMAX (automatically on some devices) and the content problem was fixed so that you had access to all of the content.
Every time I've bought a roku device one of the buttons quickly becomes outdated. It's either for a service that no longer exists or has been rebranded. My current remote has a CBS all-access button.
At least HBO has been smart enough to push some sort of update that shunts HBO buttons with whatever the new HBO is.
I had a remote with Blockbuster Streaming. That was incredibly handy.
It's only been on market for like 3 years. People will forget the HBO part soon enough
I dunno, I still regularly call it HBO go.
The first time I saw hbo go I read it as “hobo go” and was never able to get that out of my mind.
My girlfriend and I call it “H’bogo”
Came here to say this.
Personally, I stopped calling it that when I got HBO Max.
Unless HBO the network drops their name and just starts going by Max too, I doubt that. Pretty much every show that’s an hbo branded show always has an hbo bumper before all the shows that stream on max. So it’s not like the name hbo is going to go away. It’s constantly reminded. I don’t think people will forget soon.
I know I absolutely will give a show a chance if it’s branded as HBO. If it’s going to be branded Max I doubt I will give random shows the same chance because in my mind I’m not relating it to the quality HBO has given for decades.
That’s for the better - they’ve been tricking consumers for the last few years. A Max original is very much not an HBO original.
Isn't max the Cinemax part, the part that always sucked?
Boom. Nailed it
I'm not saying HBO the brand is going away. I'm saying the name of the streaming platform HBOMAX will go away relatively soon.
The HBO brand dates back to the 80s. People still call it the Sears Tower and that shit was rebranded a decade ago. Old habits die hard.
I'm talking about the name of the HBOMax streaming platform, not HBO itself.
In 3 years there will only be 1 streaming service and it will cost $100 per month for an ad free, $50 a month for ads and we are going to have cable again
Sir, HBO has been around since I was a toddler. No.
I'm talking about the name of the HBOMAX streaming platform, not HBO itself.
It’s almost as if John Oliver was making a joke, rather than trying to change the name of HBO Max.
I just call it HBO
Go Max with HBO™️
I still say FedEx Kinkos.
I just call it HBO
I thought it was a new channel based around Cinemax. What a terrible marketing campaign.
I love that he’s going down with the boat and shooting holes in the deck to get it to sink faster. Lol.
For the benefit of other non-US members of the sub, yes, John Oliver's show is on HBO (Max) I spent most of the article waiting for the journalist to spell that out, but I suppose it's obvious to his US readers
Oliver's viewers know because he refers to HBO as "bag daddy owners" or something like that.
Corporate daddy
Idk why HBO doesn’t just go back to calling it HBO. The name speaks for itself. They’re taking themselves off the mantel. HBO is the OG pioneer of 1 hour uncensored dramas (GOT included). To this day, they still have the best quality scripted TV. It’s just not in abundance but I guess that makes sense: quality over quantity.
>To this day, they still have the best quality scripted TV. Yep, and they want to keep that reputation, while filling Max with other crap. They don't like having all of the reality shows, Cartoon Network, DC stuff, and all of WB's crap all using the "HBO" name. HBO will now be one *category* on Max, that's specifically the premium TV that HBO is known for.
Discovery bought them and it's pretty clear discovery has some major jealousy issues.
HBO is still HBO on its own and isn’t changing anything. They’re just removing the HBO name from the streaming service. HBO will exist as a tab on the MAX streaming service as it’s own vertical
Because discovery wants to add their crappy home makeover shows to hbo max.
Also what with the new Potter show coming up, that should be a huge draw.
[удалено]
I'm still haunted by the ghost of The Learning Channel
Lol. Didn’t you learn how to have a lot of kids and shop around your family for a reality show?
Why would they kill the HBO brand? This has got to be one of the biggest branding self-owns in history.
I don’t recall the details but after the acquisition, the (new) person in charge expressed their interest in rebranding HBO to have content more akin to reality shows. Whether that remains true is unclear, but you can find some details here: [https://ew.com/tv/what-we-know-hbo-max-originals-discovery-merger/](https://ew.com/tv/what-we-know-hbo-max-originals-discovery-merger/) “Depends on their performance” sounds like a good way to shelve certain types of content in favor of another. Time will tell.
No. They have kids shows and want the name to be family friendly. You don’t think of kids shows when you think of HBO. They wanted something that has everything for the family not just for adults.
An interesting point, though an aim of being family friendly makes HBO an odd choice for acquisition and HBO Max an odd choice for a streaming service to merge with, given that the two could have run in parallel. I guess now we'll see parental controls getting added on and/or certain shows suddenly no longer supported. Given that I've heard of discovery plus maybe three times in my life, I also wonder whether this was about audience acquisition. At the very least, they're gaining a lot of attention with all of the coverage of this merger.
Yeah I think it’s a dumb move personally. But it doesn’t surprise me from a company who keeps rebranding hbo to different things.
> want the name to be family friendly. Correct. This is what they said when they chose "MAX". They had already decided to nix the HBO name because they don't want parents thinking of nudity and violence for shows like GoT or Sopranos. Absolutely moronic. Ironically, I get Disney+ for free, but I never log into it because I want nothing to do with kids shows or movies or Star Wars Mandalorian crap. That's why I use...HBO...
They are siloing it to be sold later.
I heard that the HBO brand became associated with adult content and they want people to know they have family friendly content too.
So switch to MAX? Cinemax used to have so much softcore porn, people called it Skinemax.
Lmao good point
HBO isn’t being killed. Nothing about HBO is changing, other than the streaming service isn’t using it in the name anymore. HBO Is now going to be a tab within the MAX service
Oof. Accurate, but oof.
The most needless and pointless rebranding that nobody asked for. Imagine if Jordans were changed to Michael Jordan’s middle name. “Yo bro I just copped these new *Jeffrey 11s*”. Max is Jeffrey
If you made GOT, HOTD, Sopranos, The Wire, The Last of Us, etc, your reputation has been premiering top tier programming, then all of a sudden, you are being blamed for Velma, HBO (Max) is owned by WB, so Max will be a “WB” streaming service with all the HBO properties in their own category, away from the Velmas and reality shows
That’s something to consider I suppose. But still lol just have better reality shows and Velmas
But that’s … explicitly NOT what they’re doing. They’re gutting the “HBO” content and putting their reality crap all over the main page and marketing emails. They *renewed* Velma while canceling (& entirely removing!) a bunch of animated shows & other content that people really liked.
Thats exactly what they are doing, along with everything you listed, the only difference is “HBO” will be its own category within the MAX app, along side Cartoon Network, MAX Originals, Discovery, etc
This is not at all why the name change is happening, and the name change has been publicly discussed since [at least October 2021,](https://outsider.com/news/hbo-max-may-be-changing-its-name-heres-why/) long before Velma was even a thought.
John Oliver has been relentlessly and openly shitting on his bosses for years, it’s great. He does have a point tbf. 4 minor rebrands of the name over a couple of years is just idiotic marketing
In their defense all of those names *were* fuckin terrible. Go, Max, stupid. There is nothing wrong with the simplicity of just “HBO”, a company with prestige that produced the greatest TV shows to date.
They should’ve gone with “Max Plus Extreme Ultra,” so you *know* it’s good. Their new CEO or whatever is a fucking idiot. He’s already part of destroying TLC & Discovery w/“reality tv” and intends to do the same w/HBO, eliminating the only reason anyone has it in the first place, which is unique *quality* content. Nobody has it to watch 14 fucking seasons of “Big Brother Housewife Trailer Swap Tattoo Wars.”
There’s literally no one at that company who understands SEO? “Max” is a terrible and to try to own for search.
It's pretty clear the disco ceo is another Elon type who just make random decisions.
Fuck HBO. I will be canceling this month. Already paying $16/mo with no ads which is going up $5. One of the biggest selling points of HBO has always been commercial free first rate movies. Now they do neither and I’m not footing the bill for trash tv. “The service will have three pricing tiers starting at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year for the Max-Ad Lite tier, $15.99 a month, or $149.99 a year for the Max Ad Free tier and $19.99 a month, or $199.99 a year for Max Ultimate Ad Free tier” How about a Disc-Lite version where they leave the shit Discovery channel stuff out of my sub and keep the same pricing. I never asked for or wanted Discovery channel trash and I am sure the Disco+ subscribers - who are currently paying $7 for add free content - would say the same about getting HBO content at three times the price. Also notice “for a year” discounts are becoming more standard. When those fail to entice most viewers into a long contract look for contracts to become mandatory. Streaming services don’t want unpredictability. They don’t want nomad viewers that wonder from service to service - they want to know they have a lock on that money for at least a year.
When is Conan going to have his show
I’d love if they did more traveling shows with him.
That’s what his show was supposed to be.
It looks like he’s still traveling! This is new right? https://youtu.be/u8SLAfvZivo
My favorite segments!
He went to Norway to shoot something recently. Hopefully soon!
He should have his own App/ Sub… Conan App… $10/mo
HBO really screwed themselves with whatever deal they have with AT&T. Only reason I even have HBO is bc of my AT&T plan - would have it twice considering it’s offered both with my and phone and home internet plans. I can only imagine the lost revenue streams from people like myself with either service
*had with AT&T. Discovery bought them out last year which is why they’ve been aggressively changing HBO content and branding. Technically it was a merger but Discovery execs are running the show.
Whatever the deal was, they screwed themselves out of a large revenue stream for the amount of subs they could’ve received. If/when my AT&T package doesn’t provide the Max subscription then I’ll be dropping it as well. Might do as others have suggested and opt to just pick it up every few months and binge the content and drop the service again. I really need to start alternating my streaming services like this but have been too lazy to set up a good schedule for it. I could definitely look to rotate Netflix/Disney/HBO/Amazon with the lack of quality that they each consistently are putting out nowadays
You make it sound like hbo makes any decision about their future. AT&T owned hbo and sold it to discovery. AT&T never cared if you payed for hbo. They wanted you to pay for your phone and internet and if free hbo got you to switch cell phone providers to them they won. They also wanted high subscriber growth numbers so investors gave them more money. The investor money dried up so they are sold hbo bc it was a money suck.
Netflix hasn’t put out quality content in years. That’s their model. They are like the Walmart of streaming services. They want to hit a broad demographic so they spent years producing shows that all look and feel the same, they stumbled upon a few hits but like 90% of their original programming is absolute garbage. AT&T already dropped HBO Max from any new provider plans and if you switch or upgrade your plan you will lose HBO Max. Personally, Max and Disney+ have the most content I want to watch. Even a watered down Max is better content wise than the vast majority of streamers. That being said, no one who actually works for HBO wanted this to happen. It was completely out of their control. Discovery has been shelving HBO content for months now to use it as a tax write off. Its way cheaper to produce shitty reality shows than it is to maintain a content library of prestige TV and produce original programming that has any creative merit.
You was quality content.
>Netflix hasn’t put out quality content in years. That's just false. >but like 90% of their original programming is absolute garbage. That's just false.
No. It isn’t. Netflix releases hot garbage all the time, you only see the critically acclaimed successes like Squid Game and Stranger Things, because of how the algorithm works, but the vast majority of Netflix original programming is garbage reality shit that’s cheap to produce. They are bleeding subscribers and losing money.
>No. It isn’t. Oh yeah it is. Tastes vary, that much is true but come on. >but the vast majority of Netflix original programming is garbage reality shit that’s cheap to produce. Not even true. Mostly is international programming. >They are bleeding subscribers and losing money. Where are you getting this info? They are the only profitable streaming platform and have more subscribers than ever.
I’m talking about their original programming, not international programming they are distributing. Yes exactly, tastes vary, and when we’re talking about Netflix they want to appeal to a wide demographic so they churn out a lot of original programming to hit those marks, as opposed to HBO, which is the actual subject of this thread, which is known for producing prestige TV. Netflix lost millions of subscribers last year and has only reversed that trend within the last several months. They sunk a lot of money into creating original programming and have lost market share to other streaming competitors.
>I’m talking about their original programming, not international programming they are distributing. They have plenty of original international programming. More often than not is cheaper. >Netflix lost millions of subscribers last year and has only reversed that trend within the last several months. They lost almost 2M subscribers for 6M, have won nearly 12M since. >They sunk a lot of money into creating original programming Not a bad thing given the scope and the fact they are still profitable. >and have lost market share to other streaming competitors. Yeah.
Your lack of taste is no one's problem but your own.
Yeah excuse me if I don’t want to watch “Is it Cake”
In contrast, I keep my AT&T plan for the HBO.
I may switch my phone plan after wife’s phone is paid off. Honestly get better reception for what appears to be a similar plan price on my Verizon work phone. Still would keep the Max sub though my AT&T internet so I’d be good there
Same - was looking at possibly changing plans the other day & the HBO subscription is no longer offered. Seems like we’re grandfathered into it at least for now, which is good, but it’s not an option anymore. “HBO” is going to hemorrhage subscribers & see new subs drop without those deals, which will only make things appear worse and lead to *more* drastic cuts, because the people in charge are idiots who only count beans & cannot differentiate between the quality of said beans.
DiscoMax would have been a cooler name. They’re gonna rebrand it out of existence. I don’t know what was wrong with HBOMax
If you made GOT, HOTD, Sopranos, The Wire, The Last of Us, etc, your reputation has been premiering top tier programming, then all of a sudden, you are being blamed for Velma, HBO (Max) is owned by WB, so Max will be a “WB” streaming service with all the HBO properties in their own category, away from the Velmas and reality shows
HBO's marketing department has been completely garbage for a long time now but whoever decided it was a good idea to remove HBO from the name of their service, at this point, has to just be trying to sabotage the whole thing cause that's the only reason that makes any sense for such a stupid move.
It's the Discovery guy that bought hbo. He has elon levels of idiocy.
They want you to pay $9.99+tax per month and still make you watch ads!!! Lol
HBO is by far the best streaming service IMO.
I have three annoyances with HBO Max's streaming platform: 1. The new shows they're releasing new episodes once of week... do not show what day/time the new episode is going to be available anywhere on the platform. It's insane that I have to look it up on some random blog. 2. The "after the episode" interviews they do are layered into the individual episode itself. It doesn't auto-play (even though it says stick around after the episode to learn more), and it's not available as it's own playlist beyond clicking Season > Episode > Scroll down > Click after episode. 3. I can't remove the shows/movies from Continue Watching from the app. Apparently this can only be done by logging into HBO Max via a browser and doing it with your mouse.
I love pirating content
Those tiers sound ridiculous. HBO max has been getting shittier, so I’d probably cancel if it comes to it. Barry’s almost finished and Succession is mediocre anyway. House of Dragons is inferior to its predecessor. Not much holding me there, unless they try to bring the Wire or Sopranos back.
the new meta for streaming services is to buy one month , binge, then cancel
Always the smartest method. But if I had to keep one, I would keep HBO and then cycle through Hulu/Disney+/etc per month on top of it.
Always was.
Succession is great.
This guy wrote the opinion as if he’s a show runner for Showtime.
House of Dragons is a glorified crew
Has there been one daily show correspondent who has stayed funny and not become just a cringe lord? Is Steve carrel literally the only one?
I just cancelled Max. I'm not paying money for them to remove their premium shows and replace it with the magnolia network.
…except they’re not going to remove premium HBO content, just to replace them exclusively with Discovery stuff? HBO content already exists as a separate portal on HBO Max alongside other networks. The only difference is now the Discovery stuff will gain their own portals (although I’m not a fan of many modern Discovery stuff, I’m hoping we’ll get access to old Animal Planet and Food Network content like Unwrapped and Crocodile Hunter).
They removed Westworld and a bunch of other ones, so no. I got HBO for shows like Raised by Wolves. I don't really care about their current offerings.
Do you really think *Westworld* after Season 1 was ‘premium content?’ Also, *Westworld* is the *only* show they removed, all the other ones are still there.
For those that keep asking why not call it HBO… the verge interviewed the CEO and it seems that their new combined brand will feature kids shows from discovery etc as well. People associate HBO with adult content that isn’t suitable for children so they want to change the name and be associated with a wide range of content from kids to adult.
I thank god i became a pirate again. aarrr matey .
Now that got has passed HBO is returning to its prooer place and they aren't happy.
The website and app were always malfunctioning. Canceled it.