WarnerMedia is moving into the already-crowded streaming service market next year with HBO Max. The new streaming platform will combine titles from across the Warner Bros. film and TV library as well as introduce original films and series, but it will have to compete with established services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as well as CBS All Access, Disney+, Apple TV+, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock.
So, how will HBO Max set itself apart? Let’s take a look at everything we know so far about this upcoming service.
HBO Max: Launch dates, prices, movies and shows to expect
HBO Max arrives in May 2020. WarnerMedia has not yet announced an exact release date, but the service is slated to debut in May.
It will cost $14.99 per month. That means an HBO Max subscription will cost quite a bit more per month than competitors Disney+ ($6.99), Apple TV+ ($4.99), and Netflix ($12.99).
AT&T customers with HBO subscriptions won’t have to pay extra. AT&T is offering HBO Max at no additional charge to the roughly 10 million HBO subscribers already on its distribution platforms. Meanwhile, HBO Now users who subscribe directly to HBO through HBONow.com will also have access to the service. WarnerMedia is in discussions with distributors like Roku to make sure customers on third-party services get HBO Max, too, so updates on that are to come.
There is an option to bundle. AT&T customers on premium video, mobile, and broadband services will be offered bundles with HBO Max included at no additional charge.
It won’t put out as much original content as some competitors. In a presentation for investors on Oct. 29, 2019, WarnerMedia Entertainment chair Robert Greenblatt said that HBO Max wasn’t focused on “the number of times at bat,” but rather on “hitting a home run every time.” That might mean a smaller roster of titles than, say, competing streamer Netflix. “We actually think the value proposition improves when we narrow the options, removing much of the filler no one watches anyway,” Greenblatt said.
HBO Max will make 50 original titles available by 2021. HBO Max’s original titles — 38 in 2020, with an additional 12 being added for 2021– are aimed mainly at three demographics: children and families, millennials and Gen Z, and adult women. The streamer will release between five and 10 new originals per year after that. Among HBO Max’s original titles are a Gossip Girl project, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series Raised by Wolves, five stand-up comedy specials from Conan O’Brien and Team Coco, and two DC series from Arrowverse creator Greg Berlanti: a Green Lantern series and Strange Adventures, a superhero anthology series.
New shows will release episodes weekly. Instead of releasing entire seasons at once, à la Netflix, HBO Max will roll out new episodes weekly. Old seasons will be available to binge, though.
Expect to see a lot of familiar favorites. The new streaming service will combine existing titles from across Warner’s properties, including Warner Bros. cinema, HBO, Cinemax, New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, TruTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes, and more.
This library will also include the exclusive streaming rights to all 10 seasons of Friends, which leaves Netflix in the new year, as well as The West Wing, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Pretty Little Liars, Batwoman, and the Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene. HBO Max will also boast the exclusive streaming rights to the BBC’s Doctor Who (though not the classic series that aired from 1963-1989), Top Gear, and Luther starting next year, and WarnerMedia will also be the first streaming home for all 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory. The service is reportedly pursuing the addition of fellow Chuck Lorre comedy Two and a Half Men to its list of offerings as well.
Additionally, fans of South Park and Rick and Morty will be interested to know that the beloved animated shows, currently streaming on Hulu, will be moving to HBO Max once it launches, as will Sesame Street, including its entire 50-year library.
Friends
Search Party is on the move too. The dark comedy is moving from TBS to the streaming service for its upcoming third season, which will be available upon the platform’s launch (as will the first two seasons). The streaming service has also picked up the show for Season 4 already.
Adventure Time is being revived for the streaming service as well. On top of everything else, HBO Max will also be taking fans of Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time back to the Land of Ooo with four one hour-long specials.
HBO’s new content will be a major feature. Count on seeing some of your HBO favorites available on the streaming service, including upcoming new shows that will also be available to HBO subscribers, like Stephen King‘s The Outsider, Jordan Peele and J.J. Abrams‘ horror series Lovecraft Country, Joss Whedon‘s The Nevers, Julian Fellowes‘ The Gilded Age, and David E. Kelley‘s The Undoing.
A ton of exclusive new shows are being created for the service. HBO Max will have all-new scripted and unscripted offerings. Highlights include Tokyo Vice, which stars Ansel Elgort as an American journalist who tries to sniff out corruption in the eponymous police department, with Miami Vice‘s Michael Mann directing the pilot; a Gossip Girl sequel series following a new generation of Upper East Siders grappling with the social landscape of New York private school life; and a kooky-sounding Grease musical series called Grease: Rydell High, which will be set in the ’50s and touch on “the peer pressures of high school, the horrors of puberty, and the rollercoaster of life in middle America with a modern sensibility.” Here’s a complete list of the shows HBO Max is making.
The film slate is coming together. HBO Max is expected to bring some new films from Greg Berlanti and Reese Witherspoon to the service. It has also acquired the rights Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk, starring Meryl Streep as an author who goes on a journey with old friends. And Gina Rodriguez is set to star as a headstrong young lawyer in new HBO Max movie Bobbie Sue.
In addition, the Melissa McCarthy comedy Superintelligence, previously set for release by Warner Bros. in December, will exclusively debut on HBO Max in 2020. The comedy, directed by McCarthy’s husband and longtime collaborator, Ben Falcone (Life of the Party, Tammy), also stars Bobby Cannavale, Brian Tyree Henry, Jean Smart, and James Corden.
A ton of Warner Bros., New Line, and DC movies will be available at launch, too, including Joker.
Sports might become a fixture … eventually. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson revealed over the summer that HBO Max might eventually get into the live sports business, with an eye on NBA, MLB, and soccer games.
HBO Max will arrive in May 2020.
Source : TVGuide
