Warners Reverses Course: Changes Max's Name Back to HBO Max

Yahoo

14-05-2025

Warner Bros. Discovery is changing the name of its streaming service again.
You'll never guess what its executives came up with.
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Originally, the service launched as HBO Max in 2020.
In 2023, the company controversially changed the streaming service to simply Max — ditching the most venerated network brand name in television in favor of the most popular name for male dogs.
Ahead the company's upfront presentation in New York at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, WBD President and CEO David Zaslav said the name will change once again … back to HBO Max.
'The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,' Zaslav said in a statement. 'Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.'
Added chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys: 'With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. 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.'
Thirty minutes into Wednesday's Warner Bros. Discovery upfront, Bloys revealed the name change to media buyers. The news was met with laughter, light applause and exactly one whistle. Bloys did follow with a solid joke: 'I know you're all shocked, but the good news is I have a drawer full of stationery from the last time around.'
The company further explained the move in a statement by noting — in what sounds like a clear shot at industry leader Netflix — 'This evolution has been influenced by changing consumer needs, and the fact that no consumer today is saying they want more content, but most consumers are saying they want better content. With other services filling the more basic needs with volume, WBD has clearly distinguished itself through its quality and distinct stories, and no brand has done that better and more consistently over 50+ years than HBO.'
Continued the statement: 'Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering. It is also a testament to WBD's willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach – leaning heavily on consumer data and insights – to best position itself for success.'
The history of the streaming service is actually even more tangled if you look back to early efforts to bring HBO content to streaming, since HBO Max replaced an SVOD service titled HBO Now and a nascent streaming service for cable subscribers called HBO Go. So, in a sense, watching the company's content on demand has changed from HBO Now to HBO Go to HBO Max to Max to HBO Max.
Recognizing the inherent humor of the situation, Warners' press packet for the announcement included a meme from Friends, with Ross famously declaring, 'We were on a break!'
Here's the new logo:
The move comes follows WBD framing its streaming business as its growth engine in its first-quarter 2025 earnings report last week, beating Wall Street expectations. The company had added 5.3 million subscribers to a total of 122.3 million, and grew streaming revenue by 8 percent to $2.7 billion and adjusted EBITDA to $339 million.
During an earnings call with analysts, Zaslav signaled that the company was going to try to pivot back to a less-is-more strategy compared to a high-and-broad volume provider like Netflix.
'The idea is it's not how much, it's how good is something we've identified,' he said. 'We're not going to flood the zone. We want to be telling the best stories, and we want to also be taking advantage of all the great quality content over the years.'
The move is a shift from back in 2023, when Zaslav emphasized a breadth and depth of content after announcing Max during an interview with CNBC. 'By increasing the amount of content we have on the platform – content for kids, content for families, nonfiction content, food, home, the biggest motion picture and TV library – by putting that whole bouquet of content, we think the broadest array of content available, that the churn will come down.'
Earlier this month, Bloys reflected back on previous name change during an interview with Puck. 'When you go back to when AT&T first launched HBO Max, putting HBO in that title was controversial,' he said. 'There were a lot of, 'Oh my God, HBO is gonna be next to Friends in the TV library' … The thinking at the time was that once you put HBO in the title, it defines everything that comes on the platform.'
Continued Bloys: 'Even two years ago, the idea was still that we were gonna be something for everybody. Everybody wanted to be the next Netflix, and it's so incredibly expensive to do that …We have accepted and understand that the majority of our subscribers at this point are going to have Netflix, and they're going to have Amazon … So when someone is putting together their media diet, it's about what you add to that … We did a lot of research and focus groups. The things subscribers want from us are HBO programming, scripted dramas, comedies, documentaries, the pay-one [licensing window] movies, library movies, and basically the Warner Bros. TV library. We went through all this data and showed it to David. The great thing about David—he looked at it and said, 'Okay, let's figure out what we're gonna do.''
And, it seems, reverting back to HBO Max is one result of those discussions.
Max will officially change to HBO Max sometime this summer.
Tony Maglio contributed to this report.
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