So HBO Is A Good Brand Now?

 Now, I've never claimed to be a smart guy or anything like that, so I might get confused about some things in my old age., such as the case here. At least this is what I think happened, and correct me if I'm wrong.

WarnerMedia, under the ownership of AT&T, launches HBO Max as a premium streaming platform using the popular cable brand as the core part of the service. WarnerMedia gets spun off from AT&T (and saddled with a LOT of DirecTV's debt in the process) and combines with Discovery to become Warner Bros Discovery. Under the myopic powers-that-be in the big offices of the merged company, WBD wanted to combine HBO Max with Discovery+ & drop the name HBO from the service because it's a negative draw to subscribers of Discovery+, who tended to be more conservative and rural compared to HBO viewers, and the executives who felt the HBO brand was a deterrent to parents of younger children who could watch preschool and children's programming on the platform despite the fact HBO had been a major outlet for those kinds of shows until mid-1997 or so.

Discovery+ wasn't shuttered, but Discovery programming migrated to HBO Max, which still dropped HBO from its name in April 2023. For reasons.

Oh, and Max also dropped most of its preschool and children's programming from its service. Also, for reasons.  

Now, it has been revealed that shows that were once deemed "Max Originals" and some upcoming shows originally slated to be exclusively on the service like The Penguin, Lanterns, and Harry Potter will now be considered "HBO Originals" and actually air on HBO. You know, the opposite of what FX does on Hulu for shows like The Bear or Clipped, which aren't on the FX linear channel. The decision to focus on the HBO brand after shunning it so openly to the point of dropping it from Max's name seems kind of... well, not crazy, just unhinged and deranged. 

Have the people in the big offices finally learned what the rest of us already have known for... ever that HBO is one of the strongest media brands on the planet?

Probably. 

Personally speaking, I don't think this move makes the HBO brand look weak. I feel the opposite is true. If anything, this exposed Warner Bros Discovery's biggest flaw about what Max is supposed to be:

Warner Bros Discovery doesn't know what Max is supposed to be. 

IHBO Max was supposed to be HBO and the best of all the Warner-owned TV brands as well as in-house brands like DC and Looney Tunes and home of the largest film and television library on the planet. 

Today, Max is HBO, some of the best of the Warner-owned TV brands, nearly all the Discovery-owned TV brands, some DC shows (though they dropped a pair of Batman projects which are now on Amazon Prime Video while others like The Sandman, Dead Boy Detectives, Lucifer, and Sweet Tooth are found exclusively on Netflix), and some Looney Tunes productions (though some films and specials have been dropped for some odd reason) as well as a limited selection of Warner-owned films with a very limited permanent library. Oh, and Max airs live sports with an extra subscription to another service and live news that's still in the beta stage. And they have a very limited slate of WB-owned scripted shows, very few of them premiering before Full House. 

You won't find Dallas, Knot's Landing, The Dukes of Hazzard, Alice, The Waltons, Maverick, CHiPs, Gilligan's Island, or many Hanna-Barbera or Ruby-Spears-owned series on MAX, but you'll find every Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri, Gaines family, or 40-Day Fiancé series there.  

Many of the earliest Max Original series and films have been purged from the service, as were fully-completed series produced by Warner Bros Animation and Cartoon Network Studios. The promise of what HBO Max was supposed to be has long evaporated from the service that is MAX. And now, it seems, being associated with the MAX brand is an albatross to this company, which is embarrassing for a TV unit.

But wait, it's not TV, and it's not HBO either. 

Perhaps it should be again. Maybe it's time to reexamine what this streamer is supposed to be instead of following the trends of others. No one wants to pay for ad tiers. Heck the successes of FAST/AVOD outlets like Tubi, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Freevee are proof of that. When subscriptions to premium services are down, you have to understand why. These companies aren't giving consumers premiums worthy of those prices, especially if they keep purging out shows and films. It's the HBO stuff that makes MAX worthwhile. 

Sure, next-day reruns are nice, but they're next-day reruns. HBO offers new things. Movie premieres also keep audiences watching, but with Hollywood keeping everything in their own walled gardens, Max only has access to the newer WB-owned flicks and whatever deals they could get from smaller studios like A24 and GKIDS. 

And yes, sports should be a HUGE part of this site. Sports were literally a Day One attraction when HBO launched in 1972. The NHL matchup between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks was the second program to air on the channel on November 8, 1972. so sports is in the channel's DNA. And if you can't air it on HBO proper, perhaps branding any sports programming on the service as HBO Sports would restore that prestigious legacy.

I think the endgame of the MAX brand is near, and I feel HBO will be part of the premium streamer's brand in some capacity again. The folks in the big offices have to figure out how to do that. 

I could tell them how, but as a clown from a film they have access to once proclaimed, if you're good at something, never do it for free.