HBO wants you to Max out
Get the rundown on the streaming service.
BURBANK, Calif. – All episodes of “South Park,” two new DC superhero shows and series produced by Mindy Kaling, Elizabeth Banks, Ridley Scott and Conan O’Brien are among the programs HBO Max will offer when it launches in May 2020.
The new streaming service, showcased during a presentation to investors and analysts Tuesday at the historic Warner Bros. studio lot, will cost $14.99 per month and will be immediately available at no extra charge to about 10 million subscribers who get HBO via DirecTV, AT&T video services and HBO Now when purchased from WarnerMedia.
HBO Max enters a crowded streaming field that already includes Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, with new competitors Apple TV Plus launching Friday and Disney Plus on Nov. 12. NBC’s Peacock service is expected in 2020, too.
As a final enticement at the end of a two-hour-plus presentation for investors that revealed details of the planned service, HBO programming president Casey Bloys announced big “Game of Thrones” prequel news: “House of the Dragon,” a look at the Targaryens 300 years before the events of “Thrones” and based on George R.R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood.” It will air on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max.
The $14.99 monthly price matches the fee for current HBO subscribers but is substantially higher than that charged by most competitors, including Apple TV Plus ($4.99) and Disney Plus ($6.99).
Tony Goncalves, one of the executives leading development of the directto-consumer service, extolled the value of HBO Max as offering “more than twice the content of HBO, wrapped in a modern, highly engaging user experience.”
The company is in discussions with other cable and wireless distributors to provide “seamless access” to their customers, who generally pay about $15 a month for HBO, though the cost varies by provider. “Those over-30 million HBO subscribers should be able to just download the app, log in and watch. Simple as that,” he said.
The new streaming service will open with about 10,000 hours of programming, including the full HBO service and library, programming from the Warner Bros. library and new and acquired content.
That’s a smaller number of hours than is offered by some competing services, but WarnerMedia content chief Kevin Reilly emphasized the quality of programming and its ability to hold viewers, from acclaimed HBO original series to a library that will include all
episodes of top comedy hits “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
Tuesday’s programming announcements included:
❚ All 23 seasons of “South Park” will be available exclusively on the streaming service in June 2020. Three new seasons will follow, with episodes available on HBO Max 24 hours after their Comedy Central premiere.
❚ Two new DC superhero shows from Greg Berlanti, the producer behind CW’s “Arrow,” “The Flash” and “Supergirl”: “Strange Adventures,” a one-hour drama focused on characters “from across the DC canon,” and a Green Lantern series.
❚ “DC Super Hero High,” a half-hour comedy series produced by Elizabeth Banks (“Pitch Perfect”) that focuses on students at a boarding school for gifted youths who don’t realize they will one day become DC superheroes.
❚ “Rap Sh*t” (working title), a halfhour comedy series from Issa Rae (“Insecure”) about a female rap group from outside of Miami trying to make it in the music industry.
❚ “College Girls” (working title), a 13episode single-camera comedy produced by Kaling (“The Mindy Project”) about three 18-year-old roommates at Vermont’s Evermore College.
❚ Five stand-up comedy specials produced by late-night host O’Brien. O’Brien will host two specials that feature short sets from up-and-coming comics while curating one-hour sets from three other comics.
❚ “Raised by Wolves,” a serialized scifi series from acclaimed director Scott. The 10-episode show “centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet … as the burgeoning colony of humans threatens to be torn apart by religious differences.”
❚ “Bobbie Sue,” a feature film starring Gina Rodriguez (“Jane the Virgin) as a “scrappy, headstrong young lawyer” who challenges a client exploiting workers within her company.
❚ Kids and family programming, highlighted by “Tooned Out,” a hybrid live-action and animated comedy in development from Oscar winner Robert Zemeckis. New animated series include “The Fungies!” and “Tig N’ Seek,” new “Looney Tunes Cartoons” and a “Jellystone” series featuring Hanna-Barbera characters. Classic “Looney Tunes,” “Merry Melodie” and Hanna-Barbera cartoons also are part of the package.
❚ The first three seasons of Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty,” under a deal for exclusive streaming rights in the U.S.
HBO Max will launch by offering “a frictionless opportunity” for the 10 million non-cable HBO customers to sign up for the service, with a goal of attracting 50 million U.S. subscribers by 2025, said WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey.