HBO Max is content-packed, but confusing
You are a confusing beast, HBO Max — and you were long before your actual appearance in late May. And “beast” is right when it comes to content, as you offer everything found on your predecessor, HBO Now, as well as a lot of other movies and TV shows made or acquired by Warner Bros. and WarnerMedia.
Wandering through you, one finds HBO hit series “The Sopranos,” “Game of Thrones” and “Succession” residing alongside a few exclusives, such as “Love Life”; all the “Harry Potter” movies; some of the films from the DC Extended Universe, such as “Wonder Woman”; classic films such as “Citizen Kane” and “Casablanca”; anime from Studio Ghibli and crunchyroll; all the episodes of network TV comedy hits “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory”; and even “Sesame Street.” Seriously, you’re a lot. But you’re such a strange mix of things that you don’t make a ton of sense.
A big part of the problem is your name. “HBO Max” doesn’t scream “Warner Bros.” — and you certainly want folks to associate the service with that major Hollywood player, the studio behind the “Harry Potter,” DCEU and myriad other movies and franchises.
Arguably worse, your name DOES suggest the
inclusion of Cinemax — also a Warner property and long an HBO sister premium cable offering. Yet one thing you DON’T have is Cinemax fare, which is disappointing. (I asked around, and more than one friend assumed, as I did, that Cinemax was a big reason for the “Max” part of the name. I’m sure with Disney+ and Apple TV+ already out there, you didn’t want to go with HBO+ … but it would have made more sense.)
And perhaps worse still, you’re not everywhere.
While I can access you via my Apple TV boxes, those using Roku and Amazon Fire TV gizmos cannot. I realize deals between content providers and platforms can be complicated AND that it takes two to tango, but that just seems like a huge problem for you, one you can’t allow to go on for long.
I also don’t love your Apple TV app — I’m disappointed you built it
on the bones of the HBO Now app, which I detested. Using the HBO Max app is similarly frustrating, but at least there IS an app for my platform of choice.
Most shockingly, you simply haven’t been great when it comes to clear communication with your potential customers. Leading up to the launch, it was surprisingly difficult to figure out what you were going to cost for whom. It seemed you’d
be about $15 per month, just as HBO Now was, but that wasn’t obvious — especially with some, but not all, customers of parent company AT&T getting you for free. With a bit of maneuvering, I was able to take advantage of a yearlong $12-per-month deal, so I can’t really complain.
And it may not seem like it, but I’m mostly not complaining about you. Ultimately, even though you’re one of the more expensive
Arguably worse, your name DOES suggest the inclusion of Cinemax — also a Warner property and long an HBO sister premium cable offering. Yet one thing you DON’T have is Cinemax fare, which is disappointing. (I asked around, and more than one friend assumed, as I did, that Cinemax was a big reason for the “Max” part of the name. I’m sure with Disney+ and Apple TV+ already out there, you didn’t want to go with HBO+ … but it would have made more sense.)
streaming services, your content library is impressive and poised to grow greatly.
I just think you’ve made things unnecessarily hard on your potential subscribers — and on yourself.