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Warner Bros. Discovery revives HBO Max name in strategic rebrand
After two years as "Max," Warner Bros. Discovery is reviving the iconic HBO Max brand, signalling a renewed focus on premium content and brand identity.
The renaming marks a return to a more premium brand identity, shedding ambiguity around the "Max" name, which some critics argued diluted the service's positioning in a saturated streaming market.
Warner Bros. Discovery has announced that it will rebrand its streaming service back to HBO Max this summer, undoing the 2023 decision to simplify the platform's name to "Max."
The move was revealed during the company's annual upfront presentation at Madison Square Garden in New York on Wednesday.
David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said, "The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service 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.”
The renaming marks a return to a more premium brand identity, shedding ambiguity around the "Max" name, which some critics argued diluted the service's positioning in a saturated streaming market.
JB Perrette, President and CEO of Streaming, and Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, echoed this sentiment. "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," said Bloys. "With the course we are on and the 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 recognised as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for," he added.
Launched in 2020 while HBO was still under AT&T's WarnerMedia, HBO Max initially served as a broader content hub, combining the prestige of HBO with a wide mix of entertainment including reality shows, documentaries, children's programming, and blockbuster films.
The platform was renamed to simply "Max" in 2023 following WarnerMedia's merger with Discovery Inc., an attempt to unify HBO's prestige programming with Discovery's more lifestyle-oriented content under one umbrella. But the simplified branding was met with mixed reception and reportedly caused consumer confusion.
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