HBO Max bows in May — $15 a month
WarnerMedia unveiled its longawaited HBO Max, which will cost $15 a month when it premieres in May, making it the most expensive gladiator in the streaming wars.
The stakes are high for WarnerMedia, whose service will compete in a crowded market. For nearly two decades, HBO has provided the gold standard in television with such shows as “Succession,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Sopranos” and “Veep.” But the world is changing as tech companies lure eyeballs and talent away from traditional TV channels.
Two years in the making, HBO Max is being designed to go headto head with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV Plus, which arrives Friday, and Disney Plus, which becomes available Nov. 12. The new service will be available to AT&T customers who already have HBO at no additional cost.
Because it will cost substantially more than Disney ($7) Apple ($5) and Netflix ($13), WarnerMedia executives must convince people that HBO Max is worth the additional cost.
To that end, they said the service will debut with a plethora of new and old content — totaling 10,000 hours — in hopes of drawing tens of millions of subscribers.
“We are committed to building a scaled and profitable platform that provides a solid foundation for future growth,” said WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey during a presentation at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.
HBO Max will have 31 original programs in 2020, for every audience demographic, including kids and family, Millennials and women.
“This is an area of emphasis for us because it is an underserved audience,” Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, said of the focus on women.
Programming will be drawn from HBO, documentaries from CNN, new DC superhero content and revamps of Looney Tunes and HannaBarbera cartoons, along with older favorites including “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory” and such movie classics as “Citizen Kane” and “Singin’ in the Rain.”
HBO Max also will be the new streaming home of the longrunning animated satire “South Park,” with 23 seasons coming to the service and new episodes appearing there a day after they premiere on Comedy Central.
WarnerMedia is making a new series of 80 Looney Tunes cartoons, 11minute episodes bringing back the classic characters. “Jellystone,” a new animated kids series, will feature HannaBarbera favorites including Yogi Bear, BooBoo and Magilla Gorilla. Robert Zemeckis (“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”) is executive producer for an animated and liveaction hybrid show called “Tooned Out.” The classic cartoon catalog will include “Flintstones” “The Jetsons” and “ScoobyDoo.”
Producer Greg Berlanti is shepherding a DC anthology series called “Strange Adventures,” as well as a show inspired by the “Green Lantern” comics.
WarnerMedia’s parent, AT&T, is looking to the streaming service to transform the phone company into a 21st century entertainment colossus. It needs to justify its $85 billion purchase of WarnerMedia, previously known as Time Warner, which includes HBO, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and the Warner Bros. movie and television studio.
The company expects to spend as much as $2 billion on HBO Max next year and is projecting 75 to 90 million subscribers globally (50 million domestically) by 2025. The service is expected to be profitable by 2023.
Some in Hollywood question whether HBO Max will succeed. Culture clashes during the first year of AT&T ownership culminated in late February with sweeping management changes.
The longtime chairman of HBO, Richard Plepler, and president of Turner, David Levy, departed. Stankey quickly brought in Bob Greenblatt, former NBC chief, in the newly created role of chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment. Now Greenblatt is in charge of HBO, Turner channels and the new streaming service.