HBO Max

Warner Bros. Discovery gave more details on its strategy to compete in the streaming wars.

Warner Bros. Discovery reported 92.1 million streaming subscribers for its services including HBO Max and Discovery+, an increase of 1.7 million from the end of the first quarter. On a pro forma basis, revenues were down 3% from the combined revenues of the two companies during the same quarter last year. The $90-million film had completed shooting and was in postproduction, but fell victim to the studio’s new corporate mandate after its merger with Discovery Inc. The media giant reported a loss of $3.42 billion, or a loss of $1.50 a share. At the same time, HBO Max is getting content from “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network starting next month, in a preview of what the combined streaming service could look like. HBO Max is one of many streaming services trying to compete with Netflix and Disney+. Netflix in July said it lost 970,000 subscribers during its most recent quarter. Paramount Global on Thursday said Paramount+ added 3.7 million subscribers during the quarter to cross the 43-million mark. AT&T spun off WarnerMedia, which merged with Discovery in a $43 billion deal that closed earlier this year. Combining HBO Max and Discovery+ will be no simple feat, since the services have very different types of content. The company expects its U.S. streaming business should be profitable in 2024. “Owning the content that really resonates with people is much more important than just having lots of content,” Zaslav said during a call with analysts. The company did not say what the new service would be called.

Magnolia Network series and the "Fixer Upper" series fronted by Chip and Joanna Gaines will begin streaming on HBO Max in September.

It bowed in January as a linear channel rebranded from Discovery’s DIY Network. The news comes ahead of Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q2 earnings report and presentation later today which is expected to be when CEO David Zaslav & co. reveal more about the future of HBO Max and Discovery+ — which are set to be combined into one platform at some point — and plans for the rest of the company.

It is absolute chaos at WB, DC and HBO right now, as the recent unthinkable cancellation of a nearly-finished Batgirl movie appears to have only been the ...

Even on the HBO side, I have to wonder if there are going to be cuts, as I don’t know if it’s guarantee the lack of a “Max” label means safe haven. This isn’t everything, and it’s not like everything on the HBO Max list is doomed (Peacemaker allegedly is safe), but we’ll have to see how this unprecedented situation unfolds. Even if some shows may survive, it seems like there are about to be a whole lot of cancellations as WB cleaves through its Max lineup.

The HGTV icons are bringing multiple shows from their Magnolia Networks banner to the streamer, including all five seasons of Fixer Upper.

Although HBO series’ like Succession, Euphoria, The White Lotus, and yes, House Of The Dragon likely won’t be affected, any Max Originals could be far less lucky. If only the Gaines’ could take a swing at fixing up WarnerMedia’s financial strategy and rescue one of the best streaming services out there. These days, it seems you either die a hero or live long enough to see your favorite streamer slowly yet surely turn into HGTV. HBO Max fans must be short on heroism these days— home improvement icons Chip and Joanna Gaines are set to move multiple shows from their Magnolia Networks banner to the streamer, Variety reports.

The war between streaming services has been a nail-bitter recently. Despite securing an early lead by, ya know, pioneering the concept, Netflix has been ...

HBO content chief Casey Bloys is reportedly set to take on a more senior position once consolidation is complete. Although they came out the gate with a slew of content while also serving as a safe haven for film releases during the first wave of Covid lockdowns, HBO Max is starting to feel the pinch of the Warner Brothers and Discovery merger. Virtually every piece of content on Warner Brothers and Discovery's shared roster has been caught in the crossfire of the company's consolidation efforts, and it seems like HBO Max is about to experience a few merger-related cuts.

What the heck is going on at HBO Max? The streaming service, the home of prestigious HBO TV shows, Warner Bros. and DC Comics films, along with original ...

"We’re going to spend significantly more on the HBO Max product," he said. (Bourdain's first travel and food show, "No Reservations," was already on Discovery+ because it originally aired on The Travel Channel). Earlier this year, the CNN+ streaming service, was scrapped by Warner Bros. Discovery leadership after just a month. As far as other changes, kids and family programming is no longer a priority for the new company. The deal put HBO Max under new management, with its own ideas about what HBO Max should be. HBO Max is the streaming service started by the company formerly known as WarnerMedia, which included premium cable channel HBO, but also programming from cable networks including TBS, TNT and CNN and the Warner Bros. film studio. In the earnings call, Zaslav was firm that he does not believe in releasing films straight to streaming.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is expected to reveal the fate of popular HBO Max originals like Hacks, Peacemaker and South Side.

Scrapping releases and scrubbing originals from the service will help the company in the form of tax breaks, IndieWire reports. Fans of the service, which is considered by many to have the strongest library of any streamer, have been vocal with their opposition to the rumored moves. Fans first began sounding the alarm this week when Warner Bros. announced that it was scrapping its HBO Max original film "Batgirl", despite filming already being complete.

Magnlia Network shows will go to HBO Max and CNN shows will appear on Discovery+ as Warner Bros. Discovery keeps the streaming services separate for now.

At the same time, the company also said Thursday that CNN will get its own “hub” on Discovery+, with CNN original series like Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy and Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown joining the service. The programming shift is the first time that legacy Discovery programming will be added to HBO Max. The content will continue to be available on Discovery+. For starters, the company said that “select” programming from Magnolia Network, the joint venture between Discovery and Chip and Joanna Gaines, would launch on HBO Max in September. That will include a new series, Fixer Upper: The Castle, which sees the hosts fixing up their own home.

HBO Max has purged at least six Warner Bros. movies that were exclusively streaming on the service in an apparent cost-cutting move.

As of now, several Warner Bros. movie exclusives for HBO Max are still on the service. Reps for Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t respond to inquiries about the HBO Max film removals. HBO Max’s removal of the Warner Bros. movies could be part of WBD’s move to get streaming-content payment obligations for underperforming titles off its books. Warner Bros. Discovery assumed a massive chunk of $43 billion in debt through the WarnerMedia deal; the merged company had a debt-to-equity ratio of around 4.6x following the deal close. Meanwhile, the reboot of comedy classic “House Party,” from LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s SpringHill, was previously slated to premiere July 28 on HBO Max but was scrubbed from the release calendar. To be sure, streaming platforms continuously add and remove content.

CEO David Zaslav is looking for cost savings after the $43 billion merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery.

Though many of these films and TV series were produced by Warner Bros. Studios, HBO Max still pays to license them for its service. Warner Bros. Discovery has also quietly removed other titles from HBO Max in recent weeks, including Hungarian original drama series The Informant. Now, after searching under couch cushions at the newly combined Warner Bros. Discovery, he appears to have found some spare change at HBO Max.

Rumors are swirling that Warner Bros. Discovery may have plans to consolidate their streaming platforms HBO Max and Discovery+.

The first signs of distress at the studio came with the bombshell announcement that the $90 million DC Batgirl film wouldn’t be released. Among the axed original films populating the growing HBO Max graveyard: Moonshot starring Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone’s Superintelligence, Seth Rogen’s An American Pickle, Robert Zemeckis’ remake of The Witches led by Anne Hathaway. Hathaway’s film Lockdown was also axed. HBO content chief Casey Bloys is reportedly set to take on a more senior position once consolidation is complete.

Huge changes are afoot at HBO Max. Chip and Joanna Gaines are putting content on the streaming service, but Batgirl and exclusive films are gone.

That debt is a sword hanging over the company’s head. Later today, Zaslav could repeat what his company did at The CW and commence with a second “ Red Wedding,” going on a canceling spree to further chip away at the $55 billion debt the company incurred in the merger. “We can’t wait to bring these stories we love—including our next adventure, Fixer Upper: The Castle—to HBO Max this September,” said a statement from the couple in an HBO Max press release. Now, just days after his company canceled Batgirl for a tax write-off, rumors are flying that HBO Max is going to be gutted, too. The next day, HBO Max quietly pulled a number of HBO Max-exclusive films from the service and canceled others in production, further raising fears. It should not surprise you that HBO Max is about to be in a world of hurt.

After the news of Warner Bros. Discovery shelving DC's 'Batgirl,' it's pulling more titles from HBO Max, including Max Original movies like 'Moonshot' and ...

Per Buffering, the word is that he feels future “movies on the Made for Max slate should now come in with a budget under $35 million.” Variety did state that the removal of the service’s six Max Originals was an effort to “cut costs” by axing less-popular streaming titles — after publishing a separate report claiming an insider’s reasoning for Batgirl being shelved was “ taxes.” Looks like HBO Max’s year of instability starts now. Variety confirmed the report, stating that at least six films made and released exclusively on the streaming service were recently pulled from HBO Max without the company mentioning it in its monthly reports of films leaving the service. Something strange is going on over at HBO Max. After the news of Warner Bros. Discovery shelving DC’s upcoming straight-to-streaming Batgirl and Scoob!: Holiday Haunt, keen-eyed Reddit users noticed that certain Max Original films had been pulled from the service altogether. A Reddit thread from a month ago noticed a handful of HBO Max’s foreign shows like Amsterdam had also been quietly removed. “The content being targeted for removal tends to be shows and movies that are not performing on the service but have an opportunity for a partial write off,” per that report. Indiewire reported that a “long list of films and series” will continue to be pulled as Warner Bros. Discovery plans to eventually merge its two streaming services.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)-owned streaming service HBO Max appears to be on the verge of a self-inflicted collapse. The future of the streamer became ...

WBD looks set to follow NBCUniversal, which earlier this summer quietly stopped including the premium tier of Peacock as an included perk of its Xfinity pay TV offer. It was also noticed this week that HBO Max has quietly removed half a dozen films branded as ‘Max Originals’ without any prior notice. One bit of good news is that Peacemaker showrunner James Gunn has told fans to ‘calm down’ and that the series will return for its previously announced second season. The future of the streamer became increasingly uncertain this week, when it was revealed that WBD execs had shelved the $90m-budget Batgirl movie despite it being in post production. The reported decision making has caused ire amongst streaming fans. Sounds like they’re not doing HBO Max scripted shows anymore with HBO taking over, so less scripted shows overall.”

Content from Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Network will soon be available on HBO Max.

Additionally, the Gaines’ new project, Fixer Upper: The Castle, will drop concurrently on Magnolia Network, HBO Max and discovery+ at 9p ET/8p CT on Friday, October 14. The move to HBO Max falls under the new Warner Bros. Discovery leadership, in which Magnolia Network moved from Discovery to the Warner Bros. side of the company under HBO and HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys. More Magnolia Network content will appear on the HBO Max spotlight page over the coming months, and the full network slate will continue to be available on discovery+.

HBO Max's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly planning to lay off 70% of its development staff.

The crumbling of HBO Max before our eyes is infuriating. “The crumbling of HBO Max before our eyes is infuriating… Not because we should love HBO unconditionally but because the service has easily the best library of classic shows and movies AND daring originals that never feel like they’re made by algorithms. the service has easily the best library of classic shows and movies AND daring originals that never feel like they’re made by algorithms,” said one Twitter user. Whereas fan faves And Just Like That (the next chapter of Sex and the City), Gossip Girl and Peacemaker could be on the chopping block because they’re HBO Max original scripted shows. with all the reports about hbo max removing scripted content, there has been lots of confusion on what is and isn’t in danger.

Some Discovery+ content—like shows by Chip and Joanna Gaines—will be available on HBO Max, and CNN originals will be available on Discovery+.

On an earnings call in February, Zaslav said “our goal is to compete with the leading streaming services,” but he added he’s not trying to “win the spending war.” Netflix leads the major streaming services—including HBO Max and Disney+—in subscribers, though it lost subscribers for the past two quarters. 140. That’s how many Emmy nominations HBO and HBO Max programs received last month, more than any other network. Meanwhile, Zaslav and other executives have long suggested they plan to combine the company’s two major streaming services—HBO Max and Discovery+—into one wide-ranging platform, though it’s not clear when this will be created.

It's a chaotic time in the entertainment industry, and it's being deemed a new Hollywood era of “austerity” after years of unchecked spending.

The fact is, it’s still pretty early in this new Xbox Game Pass era, as we have not had all that many AAA releases on Game Pass with some of the biggest and most anticipated titles after all the new Xbox studio acquisitions still to come. It’s the equivalent of releasing a movie in theaters, or debuting it day one on streaming, which is what HBO Max did for most of the pandemic. The idea of spending massive amounts on content that must be offset by huge subscriber numbers is starting to appear unsustainable, at least at current levels, which has resulted in a huge amount of debt for both Netflix and HBO Max. It was accepted for a while, but years later, has now become untenable. While we’ve seen some other brands dabble in this like Ubisoft and EA, though not to the same extent, while others like Microsoft’s direct rival Sony, have rejected the model outright, saying that it does not make sense for them to release games that way. And it's not a road that we're going to go down with this new service. In many ways it does feel like the early days of Netflix, a beloved service that millions want to sign up for, full of instant access to huge AAA games and smaller indies alike.

In the second quarter, the media conglomerate said HBO Max, HBO and Discovery+ subscribers combined were 92.1 million, up 1.7 million from 90.4 million the ...

Discovery+, meanwhile, is “the definitive non-fiction, real-life subscription streaming service,” according to WBD. It comprises shows from Discovery’s portfolio of networks, including HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, OWN, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet and Magnolia Network, as well as original titles and exclusive content. For Q1, AT&T — the prior owner of WarnerMedia and HBO Max — had reported 76.8 million total HBO and HBO Max subscribers worldwide, including 48.6 million domestically. Meanwhile, Discovery reported 24 million direct-to-consumer subscribers in Q1. That adds up to 100.8 million — so what accounts for the discrepancy with the first-quarter pro-forma total WBD reported? HBO Max includes HBO originals like “Euphoria” and “Succession,” library content including “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory,” kids shows including “Sesame Street,” movies, specials, and Max originals like “Hacks” and “The Peacemaker.” Currently, HBO Max is available for $14.99/month without ads and $9.99/month with ads in the U.S. Discovery+ is priced at $6.99/month without ads and $4.99/month with ads. That’s up 22% 75.8 million on a pro-forma basis versus a year earlier.

The company is considering a free, ad-supported version of the combined streaming platform, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav said Thursday on an ...

He is keen on big-budget spectacles that can lure audiences to brick-and-mortar theaters — like Paramount's "Top Gun: Maverick" did this year. HBO Max's ad-supported tier currently costs $10 a month. The move reshuffles the streaming marketplace, where HBO Max is widely seen as a budding success story. Warner Bros. Discovery hopes to reach 130 million global subscribers by 2025. HBO and HBO Max rose to a combined — and respectable — 76.8 million global subscribers at the end of the first quarter of the fiscal year. The current versions of HBO Max and Discovery+ account for a combined 92 million subscribers, according to the quarterly earnings report.

HBO Max will merge with Discovery+ to become one streaming service next year, and creators such as Issa Rae are concerned about the future of their shows.

Robin Thede, creator of “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” which also streams on HBO Max, quickly hopped in the replies to add “SAME.” “Content that really resonates with people is much more important than just having lots of content,” Zaslav said during Thursday’s call with analysts. On Tuesday, Warner Bros. announced it had canceled the release of the already-filmed original movie “Batgirl,” which cost an estimated $90 million. They can’t be that stupid.” The shift follows Chief Executive David Zaslav’s new ethos that with more content available than ever, quality trumps quantity. HBO and HBO Max reported a combined 76.8 million subscribers at the end of the first quarter of 2022, making it one of the more formidable competitors to Netflix and Disney+. HBO Max is the streaming home of a broad array of DC content, including the “Dark Knight” trilogy, “Peacemaker” and the animated “Harley Quinn” series.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced rollout plans for the combined streaming service to replace HBO Max and Discovery+ at the company's Q2 ...

HBO Max, per one slide, has a “male skew” toward “scripted” content and so-called “lean in” “appointment viewing” as a “home of ‘fandoms,’” while Discovery+ has a “female skew” toward “unscripted” content and a “lean back” sensibility for “comfort viewing” as a “home of ‘genredoms.’” (Looks like genredom is a newly coined term, so congrats to all involved.) Unsurprisingly, leadership reiterated the strength of both the HBO Max and Discovery+ brands several times on the call. It’s been a week for Warner Bros. Discovery, a newly merged company with two major streaming services, decades of chaotic history, and billions in debt.