As expected, media mega-corporation Warner Bros. Discovery has announced a new streaming service that will bring HBO Max and Discovery+ together, replacing those services with a single subscription. It will be called simply “Max”(as previously reported), and today we learned that it will launch on May 23 in the US.
HBO and Discovery recently came under the same roof after a merger, but they have two streaming services, each with a different style of content. HBO Max has combined the prestigious dramas of the premium cable network HBO with an extensive library of Warner Bros-owned properties and some generally strong HBO Max branded originals. In the meantime, Discovery+ offered mostly unscripted series from networks such as HGTV, Discovery Channel, TLC, and Food Network.
The new streaming service will put it all under one roof with three subscription levels:
- “Max Ad-Lite”will cost $9.99/month or $99.99/year, offering two simultaneous streams, 1080p resolution, and 5.1 surround sound with some ads.
- “Max Ad Free”will cost $15.99/month or $149.99/year and will offer all of the above plus 30 ad-free offline downloads.
- “Max Ultimate Ad Free”will cost $19.99/month or $199.99/year, increasing concurrent streams to four, resolution to 4K, offline downloads to 100, and audio format to Dolby Atmos.
Of course, Dolby Atmos and 4K won’t be offered for all content – it’s just a spec for the latest and greatest. When HBO first started streaming with HBO Go and HBO Now, it was known to have some of the worst bitrates in TV streaming, which has been a real problem for shows like Game of Thrones. But that all changed after the company began releasing major theatrical films on HBO Max. Now it offers one of the best bit rates.
Warner Bros. Discovery made sure to beef up the streamer’s upcoming launch with teasers and talk about a range of new programs coming to the service either at launch or later.
The big one could be the first-ever Harry Potter television series to be a direct retelling of the story from the original J.K. Rowling books — essentially a reworked reboot of the same material that was featured in the films. If fans were hoping for more brand new material, like the recently released hit video game Hogwarts Legacy, they will be disappointed.
There’s also True Detective: Nightland, the first new season in the crime anthology since 2019. However, it should be noted that original series showrunner Nick Pizzolatto will not be returning. He was replaced by Issa Lopez of Tigers Are Not Afraid.
Throw in a series that sees Colin Farrell reprising his role as The Penguin from Batman, a new Big Bang Theory series from original filmmaker Chuck Lorre, and a new drama set in the ridiculously popular The Conjuring universe, and you have a pretty big cast. — although we haven’t even mentioned any of the reality shows on the Discovery+ side, like the dating series Love and Translation and (I’m not kidding) a reality show set in a human-scale recreation of Barbie’s house.
Bigger Libraries and Higher Prices
When audiences began shifting from linear cable and broadcast viewing to on-demand streaming five to 10 years ago, the TV landscape was highly fragmented compared to today, leading to a comically large number of individual streaming services for the consumer. But that era has been replaced by a period of consolidation and mergers, and the launch of Max is proof of that.
The landscape now looks like a handful of big companies, each offering a classic Netflix-like library of classic content from the era of linear TV and cinemas, in tandem with a selection of original streaming-only programming and, in some cases, new ones. movie releases too.
However, this does not necessarily mean that all services make huge profits. Television production has become significantly more expensive in recent years as networks such as HBO and Netflix have raised viewer expectations by booking high-budget prestige TV shows like Game of Thrones and Stranger Things.