• Following the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery, HBO Max will soon be Max.
• The new version of the streaming platform features content from HBO Max and Discovery Plus.
• The announcement also saw new projects revealed, including an original Harry Potter series.

HBO Max is dead, long live Max.

Well not just yet, but Warner Bros. Discovery held an event yesterday to unpack the evolution of its streaming service, which will merge the content from HBO Max and Discovery Plus into one offering next month.

23rd May to be precise, with Max set to offer three different options in countries where the previous iteration was made available. At the time of writing, this excludes countries like South Africa, but remain optimistic, given the sheer volume of content that will be made available on this newly merged streaming platform.

“This new brand signals an important change from two narrower products, HBO Max and discovery+, to our broader content offering and consumer proposition. While each product offered something for some people, Max will have a broad array of quality choices for everybody,” noted JB Perrette, president & CEO of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, during yesterday’s event.

As for the different subscription options, Warner Bros. Discovery breaks it down like this:

• “Max Ad-Lite | $9.99/month or $99.99/year
  2 concurrent streams, 1080p resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ad Free | $15.99/month or $149.99/year
  2 concurrent streams, 1080 resolution, 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ultimate Ad Free | $19.99/month or $199.99/year
  4 concurrent streams, up to 4K UHD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality.”

Shifting to the original content that will head to Max, Warner Bros. Discovery has quite a bit in store, having recently shown off teaser for projects like The Penguin series.

“The service will feature a regular freshness of content with an average of more than 40 new titles and seasons every month. With a library of iconic favorites, Max will offer a world-class collection of globally recognized brands, franchises, series, and characters, making it a truly unprecedented offering. Audiences will be able to explore the iconic worlds of HBO, the DC Universe, and Harry Potter, plus hit movies, original series, and fan-favorite genres like true crime, reality, food, and comedy, all in one place,” the company highlights.

It will be interesting to see how the public will react to the forthcoming Harry Potter series, especially as its IP’s divisive creator, J.K Rowling, is also a producer on the project. Whether there’ll be backlash as there was in the lead-up to Hogwarts Legacy’s release, remains to be seen.

The more important question for us, however, is whether this new service will officially be available in South Africa. There is no word on that front for now, with most HBO-related series and movies available locally via DStv or Showmax, but the fully-fledged platform would be an interesting prospect, depending on price.