Meet HBO Max, Warner Bros. Discovery renames streamer Max after two years

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is changing the name of its flagship streaming service back to HBO Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is changing the name of its flagship streaming service back to HBO Max, part of a broader strategic shift designed to re-emphasize premium programming for adults. 

HBO Max also houses brands including Harry Potter, A24 films and iconic broadcast-TV shows like Friends. (Max)

The company announced the change, which will be effective this summer, at its annual presentation to advertisers in New York on Wednesday. 

Leading up to the streaming service’s launch in the spring of 2020, there was much internal debate about what to call it. Eventually, executives decided to name it HBO Max, a way of incorporating its storied HBO cable brand — known for popular, edgy hits from Game of Thrones to The Sopranos — while positioning the new product as a premium service that would cost more than rivals Netflix or Disney . 

From the outset sign-ups were sluggish, and many consumers were confused by the branding and how HBO Max differed from the company’s existing streaming products, HBO Go and HBO Now. 

In 2023, following WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery Inc., David Zaslav, the chief executive officer of the combined companies, announced that the service would be dropping HBO from its name in favor or a more generic brand name that in theory would appeal to a broader audience. 

At the time, the re-branding left many observers scratching their heads. Critics derided the move, saying it jettisoned a brand famous for prestige television. Now the Max experiment is over.

“Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead,” Zaslav said in a statement Wednesday. 

Recently, much of the streaming service’s buzz has come from popular HBO shows, including the third season of The White Lotus, which was a massive hit. HBO Max also houses brands including Harry Potter, A24 films and iconic broadcast-TV shows like Friends. 

Warner Bros.’s streaming business has added 22 million subscribers over the past year and the company expects to have more than 150 million by the end of 2026. At the end of the first quarter, it reported 122.3 million subscribers and an adjusted profit of $339 million.