Just two years after dropping the ‘HBO’, Warner Bros. Discovery is bringing it back. The combined streaming service will now be called ‘HBO Max’ later this summer. HBO head Casey Bloys says that this rebrand “better represents” what the service offers.
This is a move that we saw coming. As the service has been calling its originals ‘HBO Originals’ lately instead of ‘MAX Originals’. It also tested a number of always-on HBO channels (think FAST TV). It also debuted a new logo in March, which looked a lot like HBO’s logo, but without the ‘HBO’. So it was quite clear that a change was coming soon.
HBO Max originally launched in 2020
Back in 2020, Warner Bros debuted HBO MAX. This was a streaming service from Warner Bros that had all of its content, that wasn’t licensed out to other services. So it was more than just HBO, hence the name.
However, after the merger with Discovery happened, the new combined company decided to rebrand the service as simply ‘MAX’ which was a terrible name. But this represented Warner Brothers and Discovery content on the same service.
A big part of this name change was to signal to parents that it was suitable for kids and families, since it did have Sesame Street and a bunch of Discovery content. That included content from TLC, HGTV and much more. Which had much wider appeal than simply HBO, with a much larger library.
Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav said today that “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 change will become official later this summer.
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