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Max Changed Back To HBO Max (variety.com) 23

"Max" has officially reverted back to "HBO Max," two years after Warner Bros. Discovery dropped the HBO branding. Variety reports: The switch had been anticipated to take place sometime this summer, but Warner Bros. Discovery hadn't revealed an exact day for the reversal until now. The timing is key: Execs wanted to restore the "HBO Max" name prior to next week's Emmy nominations announcement on July 15.

The decision to turn "Max" back into "HBO Max" was first announced in May, timed to Warner Bros. Discovery's upfronts presentation. At the time, WBD said in a press release that "returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering. It is also a testament to WBD's willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach -- leaning heavily on consumer data and insights -- to best position itself for success."

The streamer launched as HBO Max in 2020, but then WBD opted to excise HBO from the streamer's name in 2023, changing it to just "Max." (HBO and Max continued to compete under one "HBO/Max" label for industry awards; for next week's Emmy noms, they can once again just be called "HBO Max.")
The streaming giant put out a marketing spot announcing that the change was done.

Max Changed Back To HBO Max

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  • Waste of money (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SeaFox ( 739806 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @10:06PM (#65508830)

    And someone out there who is billed as a marketing genius came up with the idea for the original rebrand.

    • Nuh-uh! They can raise the price now, because you'll be getting Max *and* HBO!
    • by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @10:55PM (#65508914)

      And someone out there who is billed as a marketing genius came up with the idea for the original rebrand.

      The rebranding is probably money well spent. Despite being a user for a number of years, when I see "MAX" my first thought is "Cinemax" not "HBO". My second thought immediate follows, "No, wait, it's 'HBO' for some reason. WTF, was 'HBO' not a good candidate for a short app name?".

      • That's apparently common. Although the money is still being wasted because it's fixing a problem that wouldn't exist if they hadn't already wasted money rebranding as Max.

        Whoever did THAT should be fired and blacklisted in the industry.

        • by drnb ( 2434720 )
          I have a faint recollection of two HBO apps. One if you were getting HBO through your cable subscription, one if you had a streaming subscription directly with HBO. MAX was the latter GO the former? Still, when when consolidating back to one app, just use HBO.
      • was 'HBO' not a good candidate for a short app name

        The HBO brand was setup to mean something premium. The problem was they were loading their streaming service with low cost rubbish shows not related to HBO and they wanted to avoid diminishing their brand value by associating with it.

        HBO as the app name *was the problem* for them.

    • by ebunga ( 95613 )

      This was all Zaslav's idiocy.

    • It was a strange move. HBO has a reputation for high quality stuff. The Wire, Game of Thrones, Sopranos. Thats 3 of my top 5 shows of all time (The others being breaking bad, and The Expanse). People *like* HBO. Why bury the lead when it comes to naming. Nobody knows or cares what "Max" is, they care about HBO.

      • "Max" is short for Cinemax. Not as famous as HBO, but still an important brand to them for decades. Kinda lost in today's world though, I do admit.

      • I've come to realize that whenever you see stuff like this going on, usually what's going on behind the scenes is there's an internal ideological struggle between one management group that's just trying to maximize profits through industry-tested methods and another that's trying to force the timeline to adhere to some childishly insane satanic prophecy.

      • And if they did recognize the name, "Skinemax" doesn't have the same brand value that it did pre-internet.

    • And someone out there who is billed as a marketing genius came up with the idea for the original rebrand.

      It actually made sense, but it was just executed in a horrible way. The whole point of switching to Max was to not pollute the well known HBO brand with the absolute rubbish they were throwing on their streaming service.

      The problem was they didn't build up the Max brand first, so people were genuinely confused at what Max was. Good idea from marketing, but horrible execution.

  • I'm still going to cancel my sub for 75% of the year.

  • HBO Max has been rebranded as HBO Max Headroom.

  • boldly iterating its strategy

    ...by going back to the way things were.

    Have you ever wondered why they even bother to write these press releases? Today's politicians pretty much just say, "Screw you; deal with it!" and it doesn't seem to make a lick of difference.

  • Somebody put together this marketing push and put it on their resume and got a nice big promotion or a new job out of it leaving behind a mess for somebody else to clean up.

    Because we are always at each other's throats and always fighting and jockeying for position we can't leave anything well enough alone. We all have to have accomplishments so that we can move on to the next job because you can't stay in one place anymore. Otherwise the layoffs come for you someday.

    So you get resume driven develop
  • On average, HBO Max series are much better than Netflix series.
    We associate HBO Max with quality series, and therefore changing the name from "HBO Max" to something else is not necessarily very relevant.
    • The reason it was rebranded was because they were intentionally reaching into their back catalog of dogshit and didn't want to burn the HBO brand.

    • That is why the rebranding was a good idea and was tried. HBO was loading their streaming service with low-cost rubbish bought from other companies. You associate HBO with quality, and they were specifically attempting to not deliver that. Hence they tried removing the name HBO.

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